Nova Scotia native Mattea Roach continued her Jeopardy! winning streak Monday, earning her 10th straight victory on the popular game show.
The 23-year-old from Halifax gained another $16,799 during the episode, bringing her total earnings to US$227,601.
Despite incorrectly answering the final Jeopardy clue, Roach clinched the win after beating fellow Canadian contestant, Caitlin Hayes, a musician and educator from Vancouver.
Hayes gave the correct answer to the final question, writing “What is Arabian Nights?” but did not wager enough to end Mattea’s winning streak.
Roach will work to defend her title again on Tuesday night’s episode.
According to Jeopardy!‘s daily box scores, Roach has answered clues correctly 93 per cent of the time in all 10 games, with 265 correct responses and 19 incorrect ones.
In an interview with Global’s The Morning Show, Roach said she applied for the show online during the pandemic, because she was “bored” and wanted to give it a go.
“The worst thing that happens is I don’t hear back, and the best thing that happens is maybe I got on the show, so there’s literally no downside to taking the test. Then I got the best possible outcome,” she said.
That best possible outcome — so far — has allowed her to pay off her student loans and a chance to appear in a future Tournament of Champions game.
Roach graduated from Sacred Heart School in Halifax in 2015, and her family still lives in Halifax and Cape Breton. She now works as a tutor in Toronto.
— with a file from Rebecca Lau