West Virginia native wins Jeopardy! in landslide victory
Matt Massie, an attorney originally from South Charleston, West Virginia, took a commanding lead during the episode that aired on June 10 when he wagered a true Daily Double during Double Jeopardy. He answered the question correctly and doubled his $7,200 winnings to $14,400.
By the end of the round, he had more than three times the winnings of the contestant in second place. Massie also answered the Final Jeopardy question correctly, bringing his total winnings to $30,000 for the day.
You can watch Massie play again on June 11 at 7 p.m. on WBOY-NBC.
WATCH: West Virginia's Fiesta Tableware appears as a clue on Jeopardy!
The last West Virginia native champion, Adriana Harmeyer who won 15 games earlier this year, received some criticism in her home state because she never mentioned the Mountain State during her tenure on the show. Massie, on the other hand, was announced as being originally from West Virginia and even shared an anecdote about West Virginia during the contestant interview segment in the middle of the show.
Massie said that while he was in law school, he helped sort out an error with the voting and Senate districts in the small unincorporated community of Malden in Kanawha County, West Virginia. He learned that the community had been sorted into the wrong district for the State Senate and had been voting for the wrong candidates for three election cycles. Massie was able to take the problem to the Kanawha County Commission and get it fixed in 2016, he said on the show.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
The controversy over the champion ‘Jeopardy' couple: A brief explainer
On Tuesday, Jason Singer won $22,401 on Jeopardy four years after his wife, Susan McMillan, claimed a $35,600 cash prize of her own. Several media outlets celebrated the couple as the show's first married champions. It turns out, they weren't. Here's a brief explainer on how the sweet story turned sour. More from Gold Derby Kesha's 'Period': What critics are saying about the singer's first independent album Michael Madsen remembered: All his Oscar-nominated films, from 'WarGames' to 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' Before Singer's win, publications were touting the history-making potential. For example, a June 30 headline from People proclaimed: "Married Jeopardy! Contestants Hope to Be First Husband and Wife Winners: 'History Is at Stake'" Then after his win, ABC's Good Morning America ran a segment on the couple with a slight caveat, stating on air, "The Jeopardy team is confirming that Jason and Susan may just be the first-ever already married Jeopardy champions." When George Stephanopoulos questioned the use of the word "may" in the statement, Lara Spencer responded that the game show doesn't do "deep dives into last names or private lives in that regard." Meanwhile, past married winners began to grumble about the inaccurate news reports, beginning with 2015 winner Kristin Sausville, who is married to 2011 champ Justin Sausville. She took to Facebook on Wedenesday and wrote that she was "really bothered" by the misinformation. "There is something really surreal and honestly kind of sinister in watching part of yourself be erased in real time," she said. She has since received an outpouring of support on social media. Sausville added, "The local media for the guy last night took up the story and ran with it, and then other media picked it up and ran it without checking for accuracy, and now it's everywhere. Now that the bots have the story, it would be impossible to correct them all, even if I cared enough to take the time to do so. I'm sure it's a matter of weeks before AI like ChatGPT and Google will give you them as the answer to the question, based on the sheer volume of bot activity. It's really Orwellian to watch how easily it's happening." She summed up her feelings by stating, "At the end of the day, I'm not all 'but my LEGACY!' about it, but I am really bothered by seeing how quickly misinformation can be spread and accepted as truth. We should keep that in mind for everything we see online and particularly via AI." A rep for Jeopardy has confirmed that the show does not track such records and said that other coupled winners aside from the Suasvilles have since been identified. Singer, a real estate agent from Portland, Maine, has acknowledged that he and his wife have not made history. He told the Portland Press Herald. "Jeopardy doesn't track every married couple that's ever been on, but they've written about a bunch on their website. Whether we're the first, the second, or the first in a long time, I just think it's a really cool accomplishment." "Just the fact of being her husband is the greatest preparation one could ever get," Singer said of his wife. "She's so curious and surrounds herself with such interesting and cosmopolitan things all the time, that by osmosis I almost had to get better." His final answer on the show notably included a hashtag to #BringBackSusan. On Thursday, Gold Derby checked in with Gemini, Google's artificial intelligence program, and it accurately stated that "there have been several married couples" to win the show, and even mentions the "incorrect" reporting regarding Singer and McMillan. A victory for truth! Other married winners include Dan Pawson and Andrea Saenz, Amy Stephenson and Scott Bateman, and David Rigsby and Ryan Alley. Meanwhile, ChatGPT claims that the first married couple to win on Jeopardy is Kristin and Justin Sausville — oops! That's not correct, as their victories were in the 2010s, while Pawson and Saenz triumphed in the 2000s. To date, Jeopardy has created six millionaires: Ken Jennings (who has hosted the show since 2023), Brad Rutter, James Holzhauer, Matt Amodio, Amy Schneider, and Yogesh Raut. See the list of Jeopardy's biggest winners ever. Merv Griffin's iconic American game show originally debuted in 1964. Unlike other programs in the genre, Jeopardy's contestants are presented with general knowledge clues in the form of answers and must respond in the form of questions. The modern-day syndicated version produced by Sony Pictures Television launched in 1984 and continues to air. Best of Gold Derby Cristin Milioti, Amanda Seyfried, Michelle Williams, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actress interviews Paul Giamatti, Stephen Graham, Cooper Koch, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actor interviews Lee Jung-jae, Adam Scott, Noah Wyle, and the best of our Emmy Drama Actor interviews Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
'Jeopardy' scandal erupts online as past married champions remind the world they exist: 'Erased in real time'
What is: misinformation? Jason Singer was thrilled when he became a Jeopardy champion on Tuesday four years after his wife, Susan McMillan, earned the same distinction — but they're far from the first married couple to achieve such a milestone. After several outlets reported that Singer and McMillan were the first-ever married contestants to win the iconic game show after tying the knot, multiple past champions called out the media for spreading inaccurate info about the show's history. Kristin Sausville, who won the show five times in 2015 and is married to fellow champion Justin Sausville, posted a message on Facebook decrying the inaccurate reporting surrounding Singer's win. "There is something really surreal and honestly kind of sinister in watching part of yourself be erased in real time," she wrote. "Maybe you've seen an article in the past day or two about how one of the Jeopardy! contestants last night had a wife who was a J! champion, and was hoping he would win so they could be the first married champions in J! history. Well. If you're friends with me, you're probably aware that both Justin and I won; Justin in 2011 and me in 2015." (The official Jeopardy Facebook and Tumblr accounts acknowledged the couple's victories during Kristin's tenure on the show.) Sausville went on to note that she and her husband weren't the first married champs in Jeopardy history either, highlighting other victorious couples including Dan Pawson and Andrea Saenz and David Rigsby and Ryan Alley. "I'm sure it's a matter of weeks before AI like ChatGPT and Google will give you [Singer and McMillan] as the answer to the question, based on the sheer volume of bot activity," she continued. "It's really Orwellian to watch how easily it's happening. Like at the end of the day, I'm not all 'but my LEGACY!' about it, but I am really bothered by seeing how quickly misinformation can be spread and accepted as truth." In a comment on a separate post, Rigsby called out incorrect reporting on the same topic. "They are not the first married Jeopardy couple," he wrote on Facebook. "There have been at least a half-dozen. Simple Internet search would reveal that." A representative for Jeopardy told Entertainment Weekly that the show does not track spousal records for contestants and acknowledged that several contestants had noted that they were also married to champs after Singer's victory. Additionally, although Singer initially believed that he and McMillan were the first married couple to emerge victorious on the show, he told the Portland Press Herald that this isn't the case."It's anecdotal. Jeopardy doesn't track every married couple that's ever been on, but they've written about a bunch on their website," he said. "Whether we're the first, the second, or the first in a long time, I just think it's a really cool accomplishment." Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
USA Today
3 days ago
- USA Today
No, 'Jeopardy' contestants weren't the first to make game show history
A post shared by Good Morning America (@goodmorningamerica) This is pretty awesome: Maine resident Jason Singer won on Jeopardy! on July 1 to join the long list of the game show's champions ... which includes his wife Susan McMillan, who won back in 2021. With reports that they may have been the first married couple to both be champs, that's ignited some backlash from former Jeopardy! winner Kristin Sausville who revealed that she and her husband Justin both won, and per some of her research, there were other married couples who were both champions. MORE JEOPARDY: Contestant won thanks to wildest Final Jeopardy coincidence "If you're friends with me, you're probably aware that both Justin and I won; Justin in 2011 and me in 2015," she wrote on Facebook. "But we weren't even the first. As far as I've been able to research, Dan Pawson and Andrea Saenz were the first." Here's more from the post: And between Justin and me and the person who aired yesterday, there were several, including Amy Stephenson and Scott Bateman, as well as David Rigsby and Ryan Alley. There are a decent number of couples who met through J! and later married, particularly through various Teachers Tournaments. But the local media for the guy last night took up the story and ran with it, and then other media picked it up and ran it without checking for accuracy, and now it's everywhere that the guy last night is part of the first married J! champions ever. Now that the bots have the story, it would be impossible to correct them all even if I cared enough to take the time to do so. As Entertainment Weekly added, "A representative for Jeopardy told Entertainment Weekly that the show does not track spousal records for contestants and acknowledged that several contestants had noted that they were also married to champs after Singer's victory." Let's take a sec and acknowledge how cool it is for all these married couples. The record has been corrected!
