“Jeopardy!” star Jamie Ding reacts to shock elimination, dedicates run to immigrants as ‘government is going after’ them

Key Points

• Jeopardy! star Jamie Ding has reacted to his surprise exit from the game show.

• Ding reflected on his 31-game winning streak, which came to an end Monday night.

• “Part of me is not okay,” Ding said, adding that he hopes his run inspires fellow immigrants in America.

After winning $882,605 on Jeopardy!, contestant Jamie Ding has reacted to his surprise exit from the legendary game show — and dedicated his run to fellow immigrants at a volatile time in American politics.

Ding’s 31-episode winning streak came to an end on Monday night’s edition of the Ken Jennings-hosted series, cementing him at No. 5 on the Jeopardy! Leaderboard of Legends ranking of past players.

“I think my last game is unusual, because I was a super champ, but I also lost in a runaway, which I feel like is the first time that ever happened,” Ding told PEOPLE.

“It almost makes me feel better,” Ding said of fellow contestant Greg Shahade’s clear dominance over the episode, because “there wasn’t really one clue or whatever that everything hinged on” in the end. This, he said, allowed him to go out with a message written on his answer board, as he wrote,”TTFN” (which stands for “ta ta for now”) as his official parting phrase.

“Part of me is not okay and thinks that it would’ve been nice to go for more games. But on the other hand, it could have ended much earlier than it did,” Ding said. “There were several people who were really strong and played well, and had a couple of things broken differently, I would have been done for weeks ago. So I’m both upset and pleased. Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened kind of thing.”

Speaking on his place in Jeopardy! history, the 33-year-old champion told PEOPLE he wanted to honor his lineage “as an immigrant and a person of color” who “was able to become part of the history of an American institution.” Ding’s parents emigrated from Beijing, China. He was born in Australia, and is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

“Jeopardy! really is an institution and America’s turning 250 years old and the federal government is going after immigrants in a way unlike anything that we’ve seen in the recent past,” he continued. “So I hope that immigrants can be seen in a positive light too.”

If Ding had won one more episode, his run would’ve tied that of James Holzhauer, who won 32 consecutive Jeopardy! episodes in 2019. Ding and Holzhauer’s respective streaks put them behind Matt Amodio (38), Amy Schneider (40), and current host Jennings (74) on the show’s all-time leader board.

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Ding’s $882,605 winnings might be a large sum, but it still trails that of Jennings, who earned $2.5 million in his initial run. With special tournament numbers factored in, Brad Rutter takes the lead with over $5 million in earnings, with Jennings trailing just behind at $4.5 million.

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