Current Jeopardy! Champion Makes History
Jeopardy! has a running champion that is proving to be one of its most impressive contestants, and it turns out they have just managed to get into the record books.
Jeopardy! contestant Amy Schneider is carving her name into the pantheon of all-time greats in the show’s history. Recently, she has collected the fourth-highest amount of winnings in regular-season play. With $706,800 and 18 consecutive wins, she is well on her way to catching up with other big-name Jeopardy! winners such as Matt Amodio, James Holzhauer, and Ken Jennings.
In order to take the top spot for highest winning, she’ll have to overtake those quiz whizzes and earn over $2.5 million dollars. Matt Amodio is her next hurdle, with winnings of $1,518,601. Next would be James Holzhauer with $2,462,216. Finally, she’ll have to overtake Ken Jennings who boasts a total of $2,520,700. If she’s able to do this, perhaps Jennings himself will be there to see it, as he’s currently sharing Jeopardy! hosting duties with Mayim Bialik.
For those keeping score at home, Amy Schneider is also climbing her way up a few other Jeopardy! records. Her regular-season winnings record is where she currently sits the highest, but she also has made the Jeopardy! Hall of Fame for the seventh-most consecutive wins with her current record of 18. She can also tie for sixth place if she ends up winning her next game. If she wants to crack the top three, she’ll have to once again top Holzhauer, Amodio, and Jennings who have 32, 38, and 72 consecutive wins respectively.
Finally, she also is sitting in sixth place for Jeopardy! all-time winnings. This category is a bit different than the regular-season winnings category since it includes tournaments. Holzhauer and Jennings are also comfortably in the top three in this category, but Brad Rutter actually holds the number one spot, with all-time winnings of $4,938,436. Needless to say, she’s got a good amount of work to do still if she wants to reach that coveted top three, so it will be exciting to see how far she gets.
Amy Schneider is an engineering manager who hails from Oakland, California. Other than breaking numerical records, Schneider is also making cultural history by being the first openly transgender contestant to qualify for the Jeopardy! tournament of top winners. She qualified for this tournament after her initial five-win winning streak and has been crushing it ever since. If she can keep her winning streak up, she’ll continue to rack up record-breaking wins and wins for LGTBQ+ representation.
Schneider has said how she is happy to be an inspiration to “nerdy trans girls who want to be on the show too.” She has also tweeted and given various statements about the importance of representation, as well as thanking previous trans contestants for “blazing the trail.” Her Twitter also is filled with various insights and thoughts she has about her in-game performance and decisions. If you’ve ever wanted to get some details about the inner-strategic workings of a top Jeopardy! contestant, Schneider’s Twitter is a great feed to check out.
At this point, no matter where Amy’s streak ends, she’s firmly planted herself amongst some of the best Jeopardy! players of all time. Make sure to keep tuning into Jeopardy! if you want to see how far she can take her record-breaking run.
