MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — After beating a 16-game winner, Eric Ahasic started his own streak on Jeopardy!
"Oh my god I just won. Two-game champion sounds a lot better than one-game champion. Go walk back, change your clothes, makeup touched up, walk back there, two new competitors. 0-0-0. Try to do it again," Ahasic recalled.
Jeopardy! films five games each day. Ahasic won all five while filming back in April.
"The coolest thing is when you win just one game of Jeopardy!, let alone five in one day and even more than that, is that everyone on staff calls you 'champ.' You walk off the stage, the microphone guy takes the mic off, 'Way to go, champ. Great game.' The contestant coordinators, 'Alright champ, follow me,'" Ahasic said. "You really want to keep winning because that's awesome."
Ahasic, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen, has been trying to get on the show for 16 years.
After winning five games on day one, Ahasic came back the next day as the defending champion.
"That first game, I'm like, 'How do you do this? How do you win five of these in a row, 15, 16 of these in a row?' And I did it... you just need to take it not just one game at at time but really it's one question at a time," Ahasic said.
EXTENDED INTERVIEW: Minneapolis meteorologist Eric Ahasic discusses Jeopardy! streak
Ahasic won six straight games before losing during game seven which aired Tuesday.
"I've done everything I could possibly imagine. I've won over 100,000 which is insane," he said.
In total, Ahasic won $160,601. He's getting married in the fall and plans to use some of the money to help pay for the wedding.
Ahasic's advice for Jeopardy! hopefuls?
"I had some insane Daily Double stats. I think I found like six or seven in a row at one point and I got like a bunch of them right in a row and that's why I'm here. It's because of those Daily Doubles. So that's really key to the game of Jeopardy!" Ahasic said.
Ahasic has now qualified for the Tournament of Champions this fall.
He said, "Everyone loses at some point, you just hope you can get just one win before that and to do six of them is, like I said, beyond my wildest imaginations."
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities in our YouTube playlist: