James Holzhauer’s record-breaking winning streak on Jeopardy! finally come to an end last night when he was beaten by contestant Emma Boettcher.
James won 32 straight games, and was just $58,484 short of beating Ken Jennings’ all-time record. He leaves the show with $2,462,216.
“Nobody likes to lose,” he told the New York Times. “But I’m very proud of how I did and I really exceeded my own expectations for the show. So I don’t feel bad about it.”
Emma, who's a librarian from Chicago, said in an interview that she's watched Jeopardy! religiously for years to prepare, playing along with a pen as a buzzer and writing her scores in a notebook. For each row on the board, she calculated the percentage of times she answered correctly - and she did the same for the Daily Doubles.
Some viewers have accused James of losing "on purpose," but he made sure to set the record straight about that on Twitter - in addition to praising Emma for her well-earned win.