Jamie Ding... does the name ring a bell?

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Raise your hand if you've heard of Jamie Ding?

I have, I have!

For the past month I've been tuning into CBS at 7:30 and following his trajectory as a contestant on “Jeopardy!”

Episodes have followed a pattern with Jamie (he's got the kind of approachable personality that makes me want to refer to him as Jamie) gathering momentum and buzzing in first, over and over, making modest wagers, and calmly answering (asking!) correctly, question after question, on every topic imaginable... and clobbering his two opponents. 

Rarely guessing wrong and without breaking a sweat.

But last week, after 31 wins, he lost.

His streak is the one of the longest in “Jeopardy!” history and he finished with more than $880,000. His nemesis was Greg Shahade, an International Master in chess who was lightning-fast on the buzzer.

Jamie calls himself as a “faceless bureaucrat.” He tended to look faintly surprised whenever he got an answer right. And his easy banter with Jeopardy host Ken Jennings was priceless.

He has the ideal nerd pedigree, asthe son of a neuroscience professor and a high school math teacher. He competed on high school quiz bowl team. Went to Princeton and has a job (he calls himself a bureaucrat, and I'm quite sure he is meticulously great at it) where he's working to address the housing crisis (and a social conscience!)

Didn't watch Jeopardy regularly until recently. Didn't start practicing to be a contestant until earlier this year.

A true Everyman.

As his clothes attested his favorite color is orange. And he's cool, calm, collected,  with a reliable intuition about where the daily doubles lie...until this final game.

A fan on Substack opined: “Put Jamie Ding on the $20 bill." As for me, I think he should run for president. And a cocktail in his honor wouldn't be amiss.

Do you follow Jeopardy and have you been watching Jamie's incredible winning streak?