New Bedford Is a Clue as First Jeopardy! Master Is Crowned

New Bedford once again had the honor of being a Jeopardy! clue, this time on the primetime Jeopardy! Masters program on ABC.

And once again, the clue was about whaling.

As we told you back in 2021, almost every clue about New Bedford in the Jeopardy! archives had to do with whaling, and Wednesday night was no different.

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On the night the first Jeopardy! Master was crowned, the Whaling City mention came as the $1600 clue under the category “National Historic Parks.”

Host Ken Jennings read the clue: “A historical park devoted to the whaling industry in this Massachusetts city features a museum and the Schooner Ernestina.”

Matt Amodio, who boasts the third-longest winning streak in Jeopardy! history behind only Jennings and Amy Schneider, rang in with the correct question of “What is New Bedford?”

He beat out fellow contestants James Holzhauer (who owns the record for most money won in a single game, $131,127) and Mattea Roach on the buzzer, earning the $1600 and putting him in the lead at the time with $6,000.

It’s no surprise Amodio knew the right question to ask; he currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he is doing his post-doctoral studies at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, according to his Twitter bio.

Jeopardy! never keeps our area out of its clues or contestant selection for too long. Just last year, a Cranston man competed on the show, and four months ago, the Rhode Island state flag was a clue.

Special thanks to New Bedford native-turned-Floridian Jack Maravell for sharing the video with us; Maravell is a musician and Beatles fanatic who coincidentally was making an appearance on WBSM the night John Lennon was murdered, and you can hear the audio of his appearance that fateful night.