‘Jeopardy!’ champ Mattea Roach’s secret weapon to winning revealed
Inside Jeopardy! podcast, executive producer Michael Davies divulged that Roach — who uses they/them pronouns — has “never” studied for the trivia series.The 24-year-old had lost to fellow victor James Holzhauer during the “Jeopardy! Masters” tournament on May 24, placing second.Roach’s mom Patti had been in the audience during the broadcast and Davies recalled what she said at the time.“[Patti] told me that Mattea spends zero time, and has spent zero time ever practicing for this show,” the EP explained.“They don’t learn trivia, they don’t read trivia books, they don’t sit on the floor in the children’s book department like James,” he said, referencing that Holzhauer used to read kids books to study.“Everything they know is from reading, sitting in front of the TV, reading newspapers and being in front of intelligent people,” Davies revealed.He then noted how Roach’s parents “were so involved in that, and get so much credit in their broad liberal arts education.”“It just shows their potential,” he said.