Topline
Famed Jeopardy! contestant Amy Schneider won the knowledge competition’s Tournament of Champions on Monday, taking home $250,000—boosting her lifetime winnings to over $1.6 million—and making her the first openly transgender contestant to do so.
Amy Schneider attends The 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards at The Beverly Hilton on April 02, 2022 in … [+]
Key Facts
Schneider beat out other Jeopardy! champions Andrew He, who took home $100,000 for second place, and Sam Buttrey, who earned third place and $50,000.
Schneider won the final game with a score of $28,600, compared to He’s 17,001 and Buttrey’s $0, after Final Jeopardy.
She clinched her victory after correctly answering the Final Jeopardy, which asked contestants to name the play that the Washington Evening Star described as a “dashing comedy” in 1864 (the answer, by the way, was Our American Cousin, the play that President Abraham Lincoln visited Ford’s Theater to see before his 1865 assassination).
Big Number
$1,632,800. That’s Schneider’s all-time winnings from the game show, including tournaments, making her the fourth-highest-grossing contestant in 39 seasons. With her Tournament Of Champions win, she surpassed Matt Amodio, who has earned $1,508,601 on the show after appearing last year. Brad Rutter has won the most money of any Jeopardy! contestant, earning $4,938,436 in regular-season and tournament play.
Key Background
Schneider made history earlier this year when she won 40 games in a row, the second-most consecutive wins in history behind now-co-host Ken Jennings, who won 74 consecutive games in 2004. Schneider, a writer and former engineering manager from Oakland, Calif., also has the fourth-highest regular season wins, with $1,382,800, behind Jennings ($2,520,700), James Holzhauer ($2,462,216) and Amodio ($1,518,601). She is the show’s longest-running female and first openly transgender competitor to make it to the tournament. This year’s Tournament of Champions—which pits high-profile winners against each other for a chance at additional winnings—increased its number of contestants from 18 to 21. Schneider was one of three pre-selected semi-final “super champion” competitors, which also included Amodio and Mattea Roach.
Further Reading
Amy Schneider Loses On ‘Jeopardy!’ After 2nd-Longest Winning Streak In History (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/11/21/amy-schneider-wins-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-and-takes-home-250000/