If the true sign of celebrity is a fancam, then Mattea Roach is an A-lister.
The Jeopardy! champ, who has won a historic 22 games in a row (good for fifth on the all-time list), has seen a “a couple fan cams of my wrist,” she told Vulture. “There’s a lot of queer people specifically who have been fans of the way I move my hands and body. It’s not something I thought about at the time I was taping, but it’s fun to see the support from that community, which I’m a part of.” Here’s the wrist in action:
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) April 28, 2022
Roach has proved to be a divisive contestant, which you can see from the top reply to that video: “She is brilliant That said… Never, in all the years I’ve watched jeopardy have I seen someone do this type of commentary. It has me and my wife totally disgusted. Especially the should have parts.” Roach isn’t what many Jeopardy! traditionalists (who probably also complain about the shift in baseball games) are used to, but she’s fine with that. In fact, she’s amused that some people think it’s a deliberate strategy.
“The craziest takes I saw were people speculating if I was doing it to distract the competition. I looked at the other contestants if they got a Daily Double or if they were telling their anecdotes. During the game, I was only looking at the board. Didn’t pay attention to what anyone else was saying other than if someone else responded to a clue incorrectly. The notion of my comments being distracting either to the viewers or the players, I was like, ‘Huh’ You don’t have time to think about weird mind games. ‘If I say this, will it throw somebody else off’ I would never want to be deliberately distracting to another player, because it’s so unsportsmanlike. I like to think it didn’t have that impact.”
Roach will attempt to continue her winning streak tonight, May 5.