DANGER! contestant Isaac Hirsch revealed that his recent winning streak has unexpectedly made him a smash hit with “the gays” in a wild new interview.
The nine-day champion shared at the What is… A Danger! podcast that he received “a lot of thirsty DMs“ while they competed and the majority were men.
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Isaac is a fan-favorite Jeopardy! champion who won $215,390 in July 2024 before its sequel ended due to a mathematical error.
It’s no secret that viewers loved Isaac more than the average gamer for his comical trivia stories, mustache, and 70s-fashion A game.
But apparently, and despite claiming he had a long-term girlfriend on the show, he attracted a certain fan base that even fewer gamers can be proud of – gay Twitter.
During the new interview, podcast hosts Emily Heller and John Cullen mentioned that Isaac has become a “low-key gay icon” of the game show.
‘COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED’
“Maybe that was the most surprising part of all of this,” Isaac said.
“Because I’ve been in public and, as far as I know, I’ve never been hit by a car.”
“So to see gay men so eager and complimentary to me is deeply flattering, but also completely unexpected.
“I don’t know what you would call me – am I a young man?” he joked.
“I’m currently going through a twink death; lots of gray hair lately,” relenting, “I’m a gay icon now.”
Isaac hinted that he was getting a lot of attention from LBGTQ + Jeopardy! fans while its sequel was airing.
He wrote on X in July: “My big takeaway from last week is that if I were single and straight, I’d be having a great time right now.”
However, he shared on the podcast that he didn’t just receive flirtatious tweets, but “a lot of DMs” or direct messages.
‘MANY, MANY MEN’
“[There were] many, many DMs, probably 70 to 30 [ratio] of men and women in terms of flirtatious direct messages,” he said.
Isaac shared that many of the DMs were platonic, others were a little more direct.
Danger! Host timeline
Danger! has had a tumultuous history regarding hosts following the death of the iconic Alex Trebek in 2020. Here are every host since the game show’s inception in 1964.
Art Fleming – from 1964 to 1975, he was the original host of the daytime version of Jeopardy! on NBC.
Alex Trebek – From 1984 to 2020, the late, great Alex hosted the modern iteration of Jeopardy! for 36 years until his death from pancreatic cancer.
Guest Hosts – 2020 to 2021, Jeopardy! tested a series of guest hosts for one- or two-week stints, including Anderson Cooper, LaVar Burton and Aaron Rodgers.
Mike Richards – 2021, he was named host for a week before resigning amid controversy. He was the show’s executive producer at the time.
Mayim Bialik – 2021 to 2023, when Mike was announced as the show’s new host, Mayim was chosen to host tournaments and primetime specials.
Mayim and Ken Jennings – 2022 to 2023, 74-time champion Ken (the winningest contestant of all time) joined Mayim as guest host and they shared hosting duties.
Ken Jennings – 2023 to present. Last December, Mayim announced on Instagram that she would “no longer” host Jeopardy! after a long hiatus, having defended the writers’ strike, and Ken was named sole host.
Ken now runs all editions of Jeopardy! including Celebrity Jeopardy!, the late night show and other primetime specials such as Masters.
“A lot of really nice seniors and really nice normal people saying ‘Hey, I loved you on Jeopardy!’
“And a lot of people are saying, ‘Hey! You’re hot’ or whatever they say in the DMs.”
Isaac shared that he ignored the flirty DMs, no matter how flattering they were, but they would have gotten NSFW if he had interacted.
“They were all relatively polite for an introductory DM. If I had responded, I’m sure they would have soiled themselves.
“My policy was that if a DM wasn’t overly flirtatious, I would respond and say ‘Hey, thanks so much.’”
Isaac recalled a DM in which someone tried to shoot in a particularly strategic way, asking if he was an ally of the LGBTQ+ community.
He shared that he responded “yes,” and the fan asked if he was “more than just an ally,” to which he said “no.”
“I’ve been with my girlfriend for five and a half years, I’m just an ally.”
Further drawing attention to an “online renaissance,” Isaac said his girlfriend loved the side effect of his appearance on the show.
“My girlfriend watches RuPaul’s Drag Race, she’s more into queer spaces than I am, as a straight guy.”
“So she got over the whole ‘your boyfriend is on Twitter gay’ thing, she really liked it.”
‘RAW, SEXUAL ENERGY’
Isaac finished with the second-longest winning streak of season 40, behind only 15-day champion Adriana Harmeyer.
A big draw to his time on the show was how funny his Q&A stories with Ken Jennings were.
During one game, the part-time comedian said he did an acting gig in which he played Jeff Goldblum in a poolside ballet performance.
“And I understand a former Jeff Goldblum impersonator,” Ken asked.
Isaac explained that there is a group in Baltimore, Maryland that does water ballet.
“Sort of in the style of the old Ethel Merman movies in public swimming pools,” he said.
“They did a scene from the life of Jeff Goldblum and cast me to play Jeff Goldblum, like in the interstitials between the ballet pieces.”
Ken joked that Isaac is like an “aquatic Jeff Goldblum.”
“I’m not graceful and I can’t swim very well, so I literally pop out in the middle and go to The Fly or something, and just do a fly thing,” Isaac said.
“But yeah, I can’t hope to capture the raw, weird sexual energy that Jeff Goldblum has,” and the audience died laughing.
“Well, I don’t want to say too much, but you’re getting pretty close now, Isaac,” Ken surprisingly told him.
Isaac looked at the camera and raised an eyebrow with a mischievous smile. [seen above] before returning to the game.
“He called you sexy,” podcast host Emily said, recalling Ken’s conversation.
Isaac told the podcast hosts that Ken’s eulogy was the “highlight of his life.”
The overall winner will return for the next Tournament of Champions, which will take place midway through Season 41.
The 41st season of Jeopardy! Premieres on September 9, 2024.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
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