Jeopardy! contestant Matt Walks reveals sweet photo of now-girfriend ‘sliding into his DMs’ after 2021 defeat on show

A JEOPARDY! contestant has lost on the game show, but shared he got a “great consolation prize” – a DM from his future girlfriend.

Matt Walks revealed a photo of the message he got from his initial 2021 appearance, which he explained on Monday’s episode led to him finding love through Jeopardy!.

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Jeopardy! Season 40 is in the second week of its Second Chance Tournament.

The game show has invited back 27 previous unvictorious contestants for the first three weeks of its 40th season.

The big winner each week advances to the first-ever Champions Wild Card Tournament later in the fall.

Digital journalist Matt, who first appeared the March 18, 2021 game of Season 37, revealed the story of his meet-‘clue.’

During the interview segment of the September 18 match, host Ken Jennings, 49, noted that Matt has Jeopardy! and specifically, guest host Katie Couric to thank for his romance.

“I had a great guest host in Katie,” Matt said.

“And there was a woman in Oregon who was watching the show specifically for Katie.

“And even though I didn’t win, I got a great consolation prize because she tweeted at me, and now we’ve been dating for two years.”

Matt pointed Maddie out in the audience and she sweetly blew a kiss with a wave.

Ken congratulated Matt: “It takes a lot of confidence to be watching Jeopardy! and think, ‘I’m gonna slide into that contestant’s DMs,’” he joked.

“She shot her shot,” Matt admitted.

DEAR ‘HOT GUY ON JEOPARDY!’

Matt shared the DM that started it all on X, formerly Twitter.

He captioned it: “how it started > how it’s going.”

The DM from his now-girlfriend [seen above] read: “Never seen a hot guy on Jeopardy, so thank you for that.

“Loved your buzzer moves, go Ducks!” – referring to the regional football team.

Matt also shared a photo of them together to go with the “how’s it going” portion.

The couple looked so happy as they posed after meeting through Jeopardy!.

One fan responded: “Heck of a Rom Com plot right here.

“Jeopardy > dating apps,” wrote another.

Although Matt lost once more on Monday’s episode, his story made a splash with fans since it’s not every day Jeopardy! leads to love.

That said, it has happened; six-day champ Troy Meyer met his wife anonymously online in 2009 when she- not he- was preparing to compete.

Troy’s wife also lost but went on to win $165K on The Chase, he went on to win $211K on Jeopardy! in 2023.

Couric was part of the fleet of guest hosts for Jeopardy! following Alex Trebek’s death in November 2020.

Ken and Mayim Bialik went on to split permanent hosting duties (though Mayim has exited this season out of solidarity for the writers’ strike).

The others included Savannah Guthrie, Anderson Cooper, Aaron Rodgers, George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, LeVar Burton and disgraced former EP (turned brief permanent host) Mike Richards.

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