Amy Schneider
Amy Schneider (born May 29, 1979) is an American writer and game show contestant.
Winning 40 consecutive games on the quiz show Jeopardy! from November 2021 to January 2022 and the November 2022 Tournament of Champions, she holds the second-longest win streak in the program's history, behind only Ken Jennings (74 games), who hosted the show as she competed. She is the most successful woman and most successful transgender contestant ever to compete on the show, in terms of both the length of her streak and her $1.6 million in winnings.
Amy Schneider | |
|---|---|
 Schneider at the Ohio Statehouse | |
| Born | May 29, 1979 Dayton, Ohio, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Dayton |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Known for | 40-game winning streak on Jeopardy! |
Schneider is known for her skill in the Final Jeopardy! round, having responded correctly 30 out of 41 times in her run. She lives in Oakland, California. Across all American game shows, she is the ninth-highest-earning contestant of all time.
Early and personal life
Schneider grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and attended Chaminade-Julienne High School. In eighth grade, she was voted "Most likely to appear on Jeopardy!" by her classmates.
Throughout her run on Jeopardy!, she expressed admiration for past champions Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer, Matt Amodio, and Julia Collins (the first woman to win 20 games in a row, at the time Jeopardy!'s second-longest streak). On a January 2022 episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Schneider said that she hoped Jennings would become the permanent host of the program, citing his comforting and empathetic presence.
Schneider has a cat named Meep, a name given to her at the shelter before adoption, "because the only noise she would make was 'meep'. Me and my girlfriend said we would find another name for her, but she kept making that noise, and we realized it was the right name."
Schneider is a trans woman; she transitioned in 2017. On January 19, 2022, Schneider was awarded a GLAAD Special Recognition honor for her Jeopardy! performance.
Schneider married her partner Genevieve Davis on May 9, 2022, after a three-month engagement.
Jeopardy! streak
Schneider's first victory occurred on the November 17, 2021 episode, dethroning five-day champion Andrew He. In the following 14 games, she only missed one Final Jeopardy! question. She missed a second in her 16th win. In total, Schneider has won over $1 million on Jeopardy!, the fifth-most winnings of any contestant on the show in all play. Schneider is the first openly transgender contestant to qualify for the Tournament of Champions. Her winning streak came one year after Kate Freeman became the first openly transgender contestant to win on the show. Schneider, who viewed Freeman's victory and several other trans contestants' losing appearances on the show as inspiration, has described the significance of having a trans identity: "The fact is, I don't actually think about being trans all that often, and so when appearing on national television, I wanted to represent that part of my identity accurately: as important, but also relatively minor." After surpassing Amodio's 38-game winning streak in the January 24, 2022, episode, Schneider took second place for the most consecutive wins in Jeopardy! history at 39, only behind Jennings's 74 consecutive wins.
End of streak
Schneider was defeated in her 41st episode, aired on January 26, 2022, finishing second behind Rhone Talsma, a librarian from Chicago, Illinois. The "Final Jeopardy!" clue was, "The only nation in the world whose name in English ends in an H, it's also one of the 10 most populous." Talsma responded, "What is Bangladesh?", which was correct, putting him ahead of Schneider who had no response. Her winnings totaled over $1,300,000, ranking her fourth in most money won in regular-season play behind Jennings, Holzhauer, and Amodio.
Tournament of Champions
Schneider appeared in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions that aired in November 2022. On November 21, she won the tournament, along with its $250,000 grand prize. She was the first openly transgender person to compete in, and to win, the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions.
Jeopardy! Masters
In January 2023, ABC announced a new primetime Jeopardy! spinoff, Jeopardy! Masters, which brought back Schneider along with Amodio, Holzhauer, Sam Buttrey, Andrew He, and Mattea Roach in a Champions League-style event. Schneider finished the quarter final round of Jeopardy! Masters in 5th place, and was eliminated from the competition.
Strategy
Schneider has explained that when she sees a category where she is weak, she gets it "out of the way first. That way, if there were any doubles in that category, they would come up when there wasn't as much money to be wagered." Later, she described her wagering strategy in a runaway game with little competition: "round up the second place score to the nearest thousand, double it, subtract it from my score, and then subtract another thousand in case I'd messed something up. Schneider said that doing crossword puzzles helps her think of words "as both a concept and a collection of letters at the same time".
Regular play winnings
| Game No. | Air Date | Final score | Cumulative Winnings | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | November 17 | $31,600* | $31,600 | ||
| 2 | November 18 | $33,800 | $65,400 | ||
| 3 | November 19 | $44,800 | $110,200 | ||
| 4 | November 22 | $45,400 | $155,600 | ||
| 5 | November 23 | $14,800 | $170,400 | First game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 6 | November 24 | $37,400 | $207,800 | ||
| 7 | November 25 | $50,000 | $257,800 | ||
| 8 | November 26 | $37,400 | $295,200 | ||
| 9 | November 29 | $47,000 | $342,200 | ||
| 10 | November 30 | $38,000* | $380,200 | ||
| 11 | December 1 | $41,000 | $421,200 | ||
| 12 | December 2 | $61,800 | $483,000 | ||
| 13 | December 3 | $53,400 | $536,400 | ||
| 14 | December 20 | $34,800* | $571,200 | Regular season play resumed after the 2021 Professors Tournament. | |
| 15 | December 21 | $35,000 | $606,200 | ||
| 16 | December 22 | $25,200 | $631,400 | Second game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 17 | December 23 | $56,000 | $687,400 | ||
| 18 | December 24 | $19,400 | $706,800 | Third game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 19 | December 27 | $38,400 | $745,200 | ||
| 20 | December 28 | $23,400 | $768,600 | ||
| 21 | December 29 | $37,400 | $806,000 | ||
| 22 | December 30 | $25,600* | $831,600 | ||
| 23 | December 31 | $24,000 | $855,600 | Fourth game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 24 | January 3 | $42,000 | $897,600 | ||
| 25 | January 4 | $20,400 | $918,000 | Fifth game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 26 | January 5 | $32,000 | $950,000 | ||
| 27 | January 6 | $27,400* | $977,400 | ||
| 28 | January 7 | $42,200 | $1,019,600 | Became fourth Jeopardy! contestant to win $1 million in regular gameplay winnings | |
| 29 | January 10 | $15,800 | $1,035,400 | Sixth game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 30 | January 11 | $22,400 | $1,057,800 | Seventh game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 31 | January 12 | $11,000 | $1,068,800 | Eighth game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 32 | January 13 | $32,800 | $1,101,600 | ||
| 33 | January 14 | $10,200 | $1,111,800 | Ninth game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round, lowest single day total. | |
| 34 | January 17 | $36,800 | $1,148,600 | ||
| 35 | January 18 | $15,400 | $1,164,000 | Tenth game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 36 | January 19 | $17,800 | $1,181,800 | Eleventh game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 37 | January 20 | $71,400 | $1,253,200 | ||
| 38 | January 21 | $54,000 | $1,307,200 | ||
| 39 | January 24 | $12,600 | $1,319,800 | Twelfth game in which she failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. Passed Matt Amodio for second-longest winning streak in regular play, behind Ken Jennings. | |
| 40 | January 25 | $63,000 | $1,382,800 | ||
| 41 | January 26 | $19,600‡ | $1,384,800 | Defeated by challenger Rhone Talsma, who finished the game with $29,600. At the end of the first round, Schneider had $7,200; Talsma had $3,400; and challenger Janice Hawthorne Timm had $2,000. At the end of Double Jeopardy!, Schneider was in the lead with $27,600; Talsma was in second place with $17,600; and Hawthorne Timm was in third with $3,200. Schneider gave the wrong answer and finished second. She was awarded $2,000. This was the 13th game in which she failed to give a correct response in the Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| * Yellow background denotes game which was not a runaway (lead going into Final Jeopardy! round could not guarantee a win). | |||||
| ‡ Red background denotes game in which Schneider is defeated. | |||||
Works
- In the Form of a Question, Simon & Schuster, 2023. ISBN 9781668013304
See also
References
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