David Madden (Jeopardy! contestant)

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David Madden

David Madden (born June 13, 1981) is a former long-running contestant on the television game show Jeopardy!. Between July 5, 2005 and September 19, 2005 Madden won nineteen games and $432,400, both records only exceeded by Ken Jennings in regular season Jeopardy! His total Jeopardy! winnings of $442,400 (adding $10,000 for the 2006 Tournament of Champions) is fourth all-time, behind Brad Rutter, Ken Jennings, and Jerome Vered.^[1] In terms of regular game winnings he ranks second, between Jennings and Larissa Kelly.

During his time at Ridgewood High in New Jersey, he competed on his school's Quiz Bowl team, and attended the National Academic Championship, where he was named to the Hall of Fame, being one of only 18 people named to it in its 25 year history.

Madden's play was noted for many runaway or lock games, strategic wagers, and the selection of higher valued clues when approaching a category, in an effort to "fish" for the Daily Doubles. His nineteen-game streak came to an end on September 19, 2005, when he was defeated by Victoria Groce, a musician from Decatur, Georgia. Steve Kaltenbaugh, a U.S. Navy sailor from Columbia, Maryland, finished third.

During the 2006 Tournament of Champions, Madden won his first round match (defeating the eventual winner of the Tournament, Michael Falk), but in his second round match, Madden entered Final Jeopardy in a distant third place, trailing Bill MacDonald $22,600 to $4,600. Instead of answering the Final Jeopardy question, he wished "Good Luck" to MacDonald on the answer screen and finished with $0.

Madden also holds two other achievements of note relating to his run on Jeopardy! Throughout his 22 games (including two in the 2006 Tournament of Champions) he selected 46 clues that were Daily Doubles and got only 2 incorrect. Madden is also believed to be the longest ever "real-time" champion since he taped his first show on December 14, 2004 and his last regular season show on July 9, 2005. During much of this time, Jeopardy! was either taping the Ultimate Tournament of Champions or on summer hiatus.

Madden studied at Princeton and Berlin and is a co-author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the American artist Richard Anuszkiewicz which will be published in 2008. From July 2007-February 2008 he hiked the length of the United States as a fundraiser for the Fisher House Foundation, a charity that provides free accommodations for family members of veterans at American military hospitals. Currently he splits his time between his hometown of Ridgewood, New Jersey and Europe, working as a genealogist.