'Jeopardy!' Champ Calls Out Immigration Policies After Shocking Defeat

Jeopardy! contestant JamieDing's winning streak ended on Monday, April 27. The contestant earned $882,605 across 31 straight games. He is now ranked fifth for most consecutive games won and highest all-time winnings in regular-season play.

After his loss on the game show, Ding told People, "As an immigrant and a person of color, I was able to become part of the history of an American institution."

"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 added. "So I hope that immigrants can be seen in a positive light too."

His return week after week meant Jeopardy! viewers began to expect Ding. He built a community of fans.

"I kept hearing how it was bringing people together, and I love that very much. I've heard people say, 'It's nice to have something positive on TV!'" said Ding.

The long-running champion's last game was a unique one. He lost to GregShahade by 13,990 points.

"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," he said. "It almost makes me feel better about the thing because there wasn't really one clue or whatever that everything hinged on."

Ding shared the other surprising benefit of being unable to come back from his loss.

"It being a runaway means that I got to write a goodbye message instead of nothing at all. I wouldn't have done that if there had even been a chance of me coming out with the victory."

Instead of answering final jeopardy, Ding wrote "TTFN" (ta ta for now), signaling he plans to make his way back to the Jeopardy! stage.

While the former contestant would have enjoyed keeping the streak going, he is grateful for his 31 games.

"Part of me is not OK 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."

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 10:09 PM.