Everybody Wants to Know if Philly’s Jeopardy! Champ Is Single

Philadelphia Jeopardy! champ Greg Shahade (photo courtesy Greg Shahade)

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When I watched Monday night’s edition of Jeopardy! to see how my acquaintance Greg Shahade did on the show, I had no idea that the Rittenhouse Square resident and international chess champion was going to end Jamie Ding’s 31-game winning streak and become the new champion. I was as surprised as the rest of the viewers. But soon after he won, something else began to surprise me.

“Is he available?” one Philly friend asked me, after my interview with Shahade published. Soon after, someone else asked me the same version of that question — this time, a guy. Another friend, who works in an office in Center City, told me on Wednesday that Shahade’s “hotness” was the subject of much cafeteria conversation among the ladies the day before, prior to him winning a second match that evening. (He’s onto game four tonight.)

And as I looked around on social media comments on my own story and the countless other stories about him that have been published since then, it is quite clear that this 47-year-old brainiac is a bona fide Jeopardy! heartthrob. Need further proof? More people are searching for “Greg Shahade wife” on Google than are searching for “Greg Shahade Jeopardy.”

Shahade says he’s been getting lots of messages, including some of a more, shall we say, intimate nature. “Just like a little weird, slightly odd stuff,” he explains. “People don’t know me, it’s just sending like a weird proposition in my inbox or something. I don’t wanna go into too much detail.” On Wednesday night, he texted me, describing some of the messages as “mildly stalking.”

Philadelphia resident Greg Shahade on Jeopardy! / Image courtesy of ABC/Jeopardy!)

So … is Greg Shahade married? Does he have a wife? A husband? What’s the deal? America wants to know, as they do with any attractive celebrity, whether they’re a Hollywood-level celeb or a mere Jeopardy! champ. We are a celebrity-obsessed culture, for better or for worse.

Shahade is most certainly unmarried. He’s also non-monogamous. He is, in fact, polyamorous.

“I’m never going to be monogamous, but I’m not, like, really super actively seeking things right now,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not open to things. Does that make sense?”

He’s not private about being polyamorous. His Instagram bio is “Chess, Jeopardy, CrossFit, Poly, Donut Expert”, and he has blogged about his experience being polyamorous. The outlet TV Insider headlined their article about his Monday win “Meet Greg Shahade, Polyamorous Chess Master Who Defeated Jamie Ding” and even swiped photos from his social media accounts depicting him with his polyamorous partners.

“They did it because they figure it’s gonna get them the most views, because polyamory to people is very divisive,” he observes. “Like, it makes people crazy to even hear the word.”

Shahade had some concerns about talking about being polyamorous for the purposes of this article. “A lot of the articles on polyamory make it sound like really crazy, and like exotic and like, whoa, like what is this weird thing that’s happening? But for me it’s just kind of, like, not that strange. It’s pretty normal or, I wouldn’t say it’s boring exactly, but it’s not like crazy things are happening. I feel like I live a pretty normal romantic life. One of the most important things for me is to kind of help make polyamory more mainstream.”

Polyamory is, of course, different things to different people who practice it. For some, it might mean that they have two partners and that there are clear rules about what interactions are like and also about whether any of them can see other people. “For me, I wanna have freedom, and I want everyone I’m close to to have freedom to do the things they want,” Shahade explains. “It’s nice when there are no limits to what kind of connection you can have with a new person you meet, and it makes life easier when there’s just no rules. But the thing that makes it a lot easier for me is that I don’t feel jealousy in the way that most people do.”

OK, Greg. But clearly the people want to know: is he available?

“I wouldn’t say ‘available,'” he answers. “I don’t go around just talking about how I’m ‘available,’ but I’m always happy to meet new, cool people that I find interesting and connect with well. I don’t like the idea of somebody not being ‘available’ because of another person, and the people I’m close to are the same. But I know that society is very monogamous, and that usually once you’re in a relationship, you just shut down all kinds of relationships with other people, and for me, that’s just not how I do things.”