JEOPARDY! champ Mattea Roach has revealed a HUGE issue that prevented her from receiving her $560K in earnings.
The Canadian tutor took to Twitter after her 23-day winning streak.
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Mattea, 23, won as many consecutive games of Jeopardy! last month.
The tattooed Toronto-based (ostensibly former) tutor scored points for her quirky casual style, chatting through wagers and hand-flicking her way to the show’s fifth-longest regular gameplay streak ever.
Ken Jennings, whom many prefer over Mayim Bialik, hosted nearly her entire run and surprisingly announced his hiatus for “months” the day after Mattea lost by $1.
But something also quite surprising happened after it was over, she wildly shared.
On Friday, a one-timer on the gameshow named Michael gave Mattea a Twitter shout-out wondering how receiving her funds was going.
“@mattearoach might’ve beaten me on #Jeopardy and gone on a historic, all-time impressive run, but will her prize money check be small enough for mobile deposit? Think not!” he claimed with a provoking pluck.
Mattea, who much like Ken – has been quiet online since her impressive run ended – broke her relative silence to respond (not in the form of a question).
She revealed that her earnings were so humungous that it created a bank error.
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“Not only was the cheque not small enough for mobile deposit, the bank held it for FIFTEEN business days,” she began – buzzing in with British English.
“Because it was ‘a large amount of money in a foreign currency,'” she concluded.
Fans went wild over the shocking deposit drama.
“Wait. They give you a literal check instead of a wire transfer for an amount that large?” one asked.
Another commented, “Almost a month?!? Didn’t they know the money was good?!?”
A third and seemingly an alum wrote, “Mine was above my bank’s normal mobile limit, but I called them and had a fun conversation with the lady on the phone and she had them temporarily lift my mobile limit. Woo.”
A fourth knocked, “First world problems” though signing off with a smile emoji.
A fifth simply wondered, “How did they not know? … As if all the people in the bank weren’t watching you?? The entire country [of Canada] was… proudly!”
DOESN’T ‘CHECK’ OUT
Season 38 of Jeopardy! which is ongoing and being hosted by Ken and Mayim, has seen a stunning stretch of streak holders.
Mattea, beloved rideshare driver Ryan Long, Amy Schneider, and Matt Amodio – all from this season – will compete in the Tournament of Champions in November, and all rank among the 10 longest runs ever.
What makes Jeopardy! special is streak holders can be so different.
Though there seems to also be a difference in when – or how – players have claimed they’ve been paid out.
6ABC did a segment on broad-shouldered brainiac Ryan, whose incredibly empathetic run this month as a working-class dad and Philadelphian-gone-gameshow great was inspiring.
However, fans noticed something that has never happened to another contestant.
He was handed his check for $300.4K for his 16 games on the local news segment just days later, and though arguably no one deserves it more – fans on Reddit were a little shocked.
“I am curious – does every Jeopardy! winner end up picking up their winnings at the offices/studio of the affiliate that hosts the show in their area, or was this part of a special story the station did on Ryan?” one user asked.
Another fan replied: “This is actually a little strange because for most contestants, win or lose, they get mailed a check weeks after their final episode airs. The ABC affiliate must have pulled some strings to make this happen.”
Another former winner chimed in with: “I was thinking the same thing. Mine arrived about 10 weeks later and was on the early side of the 60-90 days they told us to expect.”
That being said, Ryan’s backstory makes him a special case, not that anything justifies players being paid at different times.
Meanwhile, streak-holder Amy who won 39 games this year told the New York Times that it took her three months to get paid.
Given, she left the show having won $1,382,800.
By the time Amy had filmed her last episode on Nov. 9, she had taken a demotion at work, used all her paid time off, and taken several unpaid days in order to hold down her job as a software engineer.
And as of January 31st, “her check hadn’t arrived yet and she was still working full time,” the outlet wrote.
SEASON OF STREAKS
Like Amy and Ryan, Mattea Roach’s wagers were not James Holzahuer-level bold.
She often went small on Daily Doubles and famously lamented at one point “I should have wagered more” in one of her many instantly iconic on-stage ad-libs.
But Mattea’s run was, if anything, viral TV because it was so unconventional.
The Gen-Z-er won her first game on April 5th and exclaimed her “student loans are paid off!” setting the tone for her run which earned high ratings under Ken.
She revealed she had SEVEN tattoos including two LEG tattoos dedicated to the band The Talking Heads.
One of her most memorable games saw her answer Final Jeopardy ALONE on the stage with JUST Ken, due to a technicality.
Another saw her win by the amount she lost by; $1.
HOST BATTLE HEATS UP
Ken and Mayim began filling in for the legendary Alex after his tragic 2020 passing and a fleet of Season 37 celebrity guest hosts, including now-disgraced Mike Richards.
The fact that the hosting slot is still undecided has been a huge point of discussion, as the late Alex had hosted since 1984.
All this comes as Ken surprisingly tweeted when Mattea lost, “I’m handing the keys back to the talented actor-producer-writer-director (!) Mayim Bialik for a few months,” adding, “We are lucky to have her! I’ll be back before the end of the season.”
After her go with Ken, Mattea stated she wanted him to take over.
“As a contestant, there is something really special about being on stage with the greatest player of all time,” she told Vulture.
Though some fans knocked the alum for “favoring” the Scorpio as she stung the competition, champ Amy has also put her weight behind Ken.
“I think Ken Jennings should be the host. I really, I can’t say enough about him,” she said, per Yahoo! Entertainment.
Ken revealed on a recent podcast episode he was doing more tapings of pre-recorded episodes this month, as many are leaning his way – while Mayim’s sitcom Call Me Kat was given the green light to tape and premiere in just months.
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