Why Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider is glad it took her so long to get on the show
'I'm just so grateful that I came on when I did and was able to show myself,' she says after 40-win streak
Amy Schneider is glad it took her so many auditions to finally land a spot on Jeopardy!
The California-based engineering manager dreamed of being a contestant on the beloved trivia show all her life, and she had tried out several times before she finally made the cut.
But during those early auditions, she hadn't yet come out as a transgender woman.
"I'm just so grateful that I came on when I did and was able to show myself," Schneider told As It Happens host Carol Off.
"And not just show myself, but show trans people in general to a big chunk of America that's probably less exposed to them."
Making Jeopardy! history
Schneider's winning streak came to an end Wednesday after 40 consecutive victories and nearly $1.4 million US in prize money.
Her stint on the show put her in the Jeopardy! history books with the second-most consecutive wins after contestant-turned-guest host Ken Jennings.
Her prize total of $1,382,800 US puts her in fourth place on the regular-season winnings list, behind Jennings at $2,520,700, James Holzhauer $2,462,216 and Matt Amodio at $1,518,601.
She was also the first woman to win $1 million on the show, and the first transgender person to qualify for the Tournament of Champions.
"The money and everything was great, and that was all I was thinking about when I set out to do it. But to realize that I had helped some people while doing it was just such a wonderful and unexpected kind of bonus," Schneider said.
A traditional approach
Schneider's success follows a series of high-profile winning streaks on Jeopardy! over the last five years.
But unlike some of her predecessors who looked for unique gameplay strategies to win, Schneider took a more traditional approach.
"I think a lot of people in recent years have kind of adopted a strategy of kind of jumping around the board more and hunting for the Daily Doubles early and things like that. And, you know, there's definitely arguments to be made for that strategy," she said.
I was like: Oh, might as well give them a good show.- Amy Schneider, Jeopardy! champion
But at the end of the day, Schneider says those strategies only make a "marginal difference."
"It's a TV show, and I know that the audience at home prefers kind of seeing the categories go down in order and all that sort of thing. I was like: Oh, might as well give them a good show."
Culminating in tears
Competing on Jeopardy! was an incredible experience, she said, and a huge part of her didn't want it to end. But when it was finally over, she says she cried — and they were partly tears of relief.
During her streak, Jeopardy! filmed five episodes a day, twice a week. A single day of filming can last up to 11 hours.
"I didn't want to be done with it, but definitely also I was ready to get back to my normal life and to get a break from the filming," she said.
Now that it's over, Schneider says she's happy with her performance, and the confidence boost that came with it.
"I had to work to make sure that I was OK with myself, you know, going into it: that I was going to be OK, I wasn't going to be worried about how I looked, how I sounded, all those other things — not worried about how my transness was coming across," she said.
"And that was such a great lesson for my life in general — like such a great life skill to have, to have that confidence in myself."
Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from The Associated Press. Interview produced by Sarah Jackson.
