Watch out, James Holzhauer, your crown is in Jeopardy.
Jason Zuffranieri is the latest brainiac to dominate the ABC quiz show “Jeopardy!” On Wednesday, the math teacher from Albuquerque won $30,400, bringing the grand total of his 19-day winning streak to $532,496.
On Tuesday night, Zuffranieri became the third-ever contestant to win over half a million during regular-season, non-tournament play. His current streak has him paced to join the ranks of record-holders James Holzhauer, who won $2,462,216 over the course of 32 straight games this past spring. Ken Jennings, who won 74 games straight and took home $2,520,700 back in 2004, holds the top spot for consecutive wins.
But despite his victories, the 43-year-old remains humble.
“It’s quite shocking really, because those players all seemed invincible right up until they lost, and I have never felt anything at all like that about myself,” Zuffranieri tells The Post. “The numbers speak for themselves, but I, and others, would rank myself in with the luckiest players in the show’s history before I’d consider myself one of the greatest.”
Luck — and strategy, it seems. To prepare for the show, Zuffranieri dove deep into the topics like classic paintings, sculpture and music. “I booked up pretty hard on those and actually actively sought them out during matches,” he says, adding that wildlife seems to be a sticking point. “Despite my best efforts, I simply am not good with questions about animals — name the dog breed, categorize the exotic animal, whatever.”
“I feel pretty confident on sports and rock music topics, and I had really good results on the Classic Heavy Metal category from last week,” he says.
Zuffranieri’s streak comes amid Alex Trebek’s announcement on “Good Morning America” that he would be undergoing a second round of chemotherapy to treat pancreatic cancer. Trebek says he has no plans of taking a break from his hosting duties, which he began in 1984. “As long as I can walk out and greet the audience and the contestants and run the game, I’m happy,” he said.
Trebek also called Zuffranieri “a force” in a promotional video.
As far as consecutive game wins, Zuffranieri trails Jennings, Holzhauer and Julia Collins, who won 20 games in a row in 2014. He’s tied for fourth place in straight wins with David Madden, whose 19-game streak occurred in the summer of 2005.
His dream subject? “Some sort of category where you had to solve a sudoku puzzle or quickly calculate a numerical result would be something I would wager it all on,” says Zuffranieri, who heads into Thursday’s match (which was taped in advance) as the returning champion. “But I won’t hold my breath waiting on those!”