Mattea Roach said growing up with three brothers helped shape her competitive nature as she once again dominated in Jeopardy! Tuesday night, earning her 11th consecutive win on the popular quiz show.
Roach, a 23-year-old originally from Halifax, took home another $17,281 — bringing her total winnings to $244,882 USD.
By the end of the night, she had correctly answered 23 questions and only answered two incorrectly, giving her a success rate of 92 per cent. Among those answered correctly were questions about the Bay of Fundy and the Titanic.
Roach didn’t get the final Jeopardy! question right, but neither did her two opponents.
Roach’s keenness for competition didn’t come from nowhere. During the interview portion of the show, she mentioned that she had three younger brothers, two of whom are twins.
She said growing up, they were very competitive with each other.
“One of the twins once bet me — I was 14 and he was nine — he bet me that he would get his drivers’ license before me, get a job before me and start dating before me,” she said.
“And the sad thing is, he beat me on two out of three. So now we’ll see if he can come on Jeopardy! and maybe best me here as well.”
If that were to happen, her brother would have a tough streak to beat. Roach will return for her 12th game Wednesday night.
In a previous 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.