Nova Scotia’s Mattea Roach wins Jeopardy! for the 4th time, winnings top $100K

For the fourth night in a row, Mattea Roach once again did her home province proud by earning herself another big win on the popular game show Jeopardy! Friday night.

Roach, a 23-year-old originally from Halifax, handily beat her two opponents and won $24,200 USD — bringing her total winnings over four days to $104,600 USD, or just over $83,212 CAD.

This makes Roach a “six-figure champion,” and puts her in an “excellent position” for the tournament of champions, noted host Mayim Bialik.

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, based in Toronto.

The young woman first won her first $32,001 on Tuesday night’s episode. That evening, she got a question about Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers correct, and made a point of saying she “couldn’t get it wrong” because it was her home province.

Then on Wednesday night, she won another $38,000, correctly answering 35 out of the 60 clues during the episode — a feat Bialik called “very impressive.”

Her winning streak continued on Thursday, where she took home another $9,599. While she answered the Final Jeopardy! round clue incorrectly, so did the other two contestants.

Roach said in a Twitter thread Friday evening that while Thursday’s performance didn’t quite match the first two, she “managed to eke out a win in the end!”

“Jeopardy is predominantly a knowledge game, but it’s also about reflexes, strategy, statistics (for some, not so much for me), and just a ton of luck. As a player and a viewer, I think it’s super important to remember this!” she wrote.

During an interview with Global’s The Morning Show earlier in the week, Roach said she’s watched Jeopardy! since she was a child — although she admitted Wheel of Fortune was her favourite.

And it turns out, if it wasn’t for the COVID-19 pandemic, Roach may never had ended up on the game show.

“I applied during the pandemic. I was, like many people my age, spending a bit more time at my parents’ house than I really expected to,” she said.

After her first win earlier in the week, an extended video posted to the Jeopardy! website shows Roach declaring that her student loans were now paid off.

“I’m hoping to go back to school so there will be more,” she said with a laugh to the other two contestants and host, Bialik.

Roach will be back on Monday night’s episode. The shows were originally taped in Los Angeles back in January.

— with files from Rebecca Lau