'Jeopardy!' Alum Ryan Long Reveals How He Handled Anxiety on the Show

January 22, 2024

Former Jeopardy! champ Ryan Long has revealed how he dealt with feelings of anxiety during his run on the syndicated quiz show earlier this year.

In episodes that aired in May and June, Long, a rideshare driver from Philadelphia, became one of Season 38's super champs, clocking up 16 consecutive wins and earning a $299,400 total cash prize.

Long's haul saw him secure ninth place overall on the Jeopardy! Leaderboard of Legends for most games won and 11th place for most cash raked in during regular season play. His win streak qualified him for this year's Tournament of Champions.

He discussed his time on the show during an appearance on Doug Benson's Doug Loves Movies podcast, where he was asked about how he dealt with any feelings of anxiety while shooting Jeopardy! in Los Angeles.

"When I was up on the stage I wasn't anxious," Long said. "Before I left my hotel room, I was plenty anxious. But I did like every person does, I just pushed it down until it wasn't visible and then went about my day."

With his run qualifying him to compete against other super champs later this fall, Long admitted that he's looking forward to returning to the set.

"I can't wait to go back and see all the folks I met on the show," he said. "The crew, they're amazing people and I miss them. I still talk to a few of them, and I've got a group chat with the people I was on against in the first week. We all talk s***."

As for whether the fresh round of competition has left him anxious in any way, Long shared: "I'm not thinking about the show so much, which I probably should, which is more important. I'm thinking about logistics and I'm taking my kid [for] his first trip on a plane, and like all that normal life life. Not so much the Jeopardy! [games]."

After dominating Jeopardy! for several episodes, Long was defeated on the show by Eric Ahasic, who went on to secure a six-game win streak of his own.

In his exit interview with Jeopardy! Clue Crew member Jimmy McGuire, Long said that his success on the show proved to be a "complete 180 in my life, maybe even a 210," adding of his record-breaking run, "It's just nice to be in such rarefied company."

Taking to Twitter at the time, Long wrote: "I want to thank everybody who watched and supported me. I want to thank all my fellow contestants who were, to a person, exemplary human beings. I want to thank my momma and everybody who put me in the position to do this. I owe them everything.

"Sometimes it seems like society put you in a box, and you are classified as a certain thing with a certain destiny, even though you may feel differently inside. For the longest time, I didn't believe that a person could really break out of that box.

"But I feel like this thing that just happened is proof that you can. Trust yourself, hold on to your dreams, you know who you really are. Take your shot, and don't let anybody tell you you can't do this or that, or you should be doing things a certain way. As my grandmom would've said, never let ANYBODY steal your shine. Much love to everybody. See you in the fall."

Long is one of a number of Jeopardy! super champs to have emerged from season 38, including Amy Schneider (40 games), Matt Amodio (38), Mattea Roach (23), Jonathan Fisher (11), and Courtney Shah and Brian Chang with seven apiece.

Amid the influx of hot streaks, fans voiced questions online about how there seemed to be more super champs than usual.

Brad Rutter—who enjoyed a five-game win streak on the show back in 2000, before the rules were changed to allow champions to return after more than five victories—explained earlier this year that it's all a question of odds.

"It seems like we have super champions coming on every couple of months or so now, which has all the conspiracy theorists talking of course," he said in an interview with TV Insider in January.

Rutter, who is the show's all-time top money winner with $4,938,436 after his success in Jeopardy! tournaments, went on: "Somebody asked me about it the other day and the example I gave, which I'm not sure is great, was if you flip a coin a million times, you'd be surprised how many times it'll come up heads 20 or 30 times in a row.

"It's way more than you would expect. Even if they wanted to rig [the game], I don't know how they could. This kind of stuff just happens. And I think we should just enjoy it while it's happening."

Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings is the show's most successful contestant of all time, achieving a win streak of 74 games in 2004.

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