LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The popular gameshow 'Jeopardy! Masters' is a gift that keeps on giving. After an intense two weeks of quiz battles, the show has finally arrived at its four semifinalists that will carry the baton into the next week. James Holzhaeur, Andrew He, Matt Amodio, and Mattea Roach are all in it to win the big prize money of $500,000. But in a recent interview, the show’s executive producer, Michael Davies dropped a bomb, revealing that one of the semi-finalists was not considered to be a part of the Masters' special tournament.
Appearing on the Inside ‘Jeopardy!’ podcast, Davies revealed that there were doubts to bring Mattea Roach as a contestant for the ‘Jeopardy! Masters' tournament. There were a lot of apprehensions surrounding Mattea but eventually, the producers decided to bring her on board as one of the six contestants. However, the reason behind ignoring Mattea to appear on the show is not entirely digestible.
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Why producers didn’t want Mattea Roach as a contestant
Mattea is a 23-year-old non-binary who prefers to go by the pronouns they/them. However, this wasn’t the case producers had doubts but they did question Mattea over the tattoo of two cowboys on her arm which they believed was Not Safe For Work (NSFW). However, Mattea explained and the producers were satisfied with her response. After that, Mattea had a smooth run to enter the competition and decided to fight for the big prize money and the Trebek Trophy.
However, on the podcast, even Davies mentioned that there weren’t any specific doubts related to Mattea. He then went on to praise Mattea as a great competitor. "Mattea went on a 23-game winning streak at the age of 23. Mattea is the greatest young Jeopardy! players on planet Earth, and is really proving their right to be in this competition.” He then complimented Mattea’s buzzing skills, mentioning that she can beat anyone at that. “(Mattea) gets hot every now and again and there’s just no stopping them," Michael gushed. "They are simmering trying to find a way to get back into this game.
Where is Mattea Roach placed in ‘Jeopardy! Masters'?
Mattea is currently at the fourth spot, right at the bottom of the leaderboard and only escaped elimination after Sam Buttrey and Amy Schneider failed to register a win in the past two weeks. Currently, Mattea has two wins and nine points to her name. But they suffered a huge personal loss after the death of their father. Mattea was never shy to boast about their bond with their dad and will look to go all the way into this tournament.
