Canadian 'Jeopardy!' contestant enters second week as returning champ

Mattea Roach will return to Jeopardy! Mattea Roach will return to Jeopardy! for the Tournament of Champions.

Canadian “Jeopardy!” champion Mattea Roach is now entering her second week as the long-running game show’s returning champion.

Roach, a 23-year-old tutor from Nova Scotia who now lives in Toronto, won her eighth consecutive match on Thursday, bringing her total winnings to US$182,801 and counting.

Roach told CTV’s Your Morning that she studies old episodes of the show to learn some tricks to success.

“I looked at archive copies of games of the past two [to] three years to get a feel for what sorts of subject matter come up often, how the writers put little hints in the clues,” she said.

Roach first applied to be on the show in 2020 and got the call for taping in January. She didn’t plan on telling her family about the win streak, but her phone plan gave away the surprise, as her parents pay the bill.

“I was like: ‘Oh shoot, I'm going to have to tell them because they're going to notice there are more roaming charges than they would’ve expected,” she said.

Phil Roach, Mattea’s father, said he’s glad the phone bill gave away her daughter’s secret.

“I don't know how I would make it through each show if I didn't know a little bit about what was going to happen, but we're of course sworn to secrecy,” he said.

Roach intends to use the money to pay off her student loan and further her education. She is also planning a vacation to Portugal and to invest whatever is left over.

As a winner of more than four matches, Roach is eligible for an upcoming Tournament of Champions.

Roach puts her streak on the line on Friday, when she goes up against Katie Teller, a dietician from Seattle and Allan Joseph, a fellow in pediatric critical care medicine from Pittsburgh.