Ken Jennings is the Jeopardy! GOAT — for now.
Amy Schneider, who has the second longest winning streak in the game show’s history (40), won the the 2022 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions. The Oakland resident and trans icon was the first to win three games in the tournament, besting Andrew He, a software developer from San Francisco, California, and Sam Buttrey, an associate professor of operations research at the Naval Postgraduate School from Pacific Grove, California. (It was a good tournament for Californians; everyone else was out of luck.)
Heading into Final Jeopardy, Schneider was in the lead with $15,600, followed by He at $14,200 and Buttrey at $8,000. The Final Jeopardy clue: “The January 12, 1864 Washington Star reported on a performance of this ‘dashing comedy’ to a ‘full and delighted house.'” Both Schneider and He guessed the response correctly (“What is, Our American Cousin?”), but He’s wager was only $2,801, giving him a grand total of $17,001; Schneider wagered $13,000 for a final total of $28,600. And the tournament.
“I feel amazing,” Schneider said after the win. “Earlier in the finals, I had this sudden moment of seeing myself and being like ‘I’m on stage in the Tournament of Champions finals,’ and that was crazy. And I won! It’s a great feeling.” She will take home $250,000 for the achievement, to go along with the $1.3 million she won during her winning streak.
Is it too soon to start demanding Schneider vs. Jennings?
