Amy Schneider has totally shaken up Jeopardy!’s all-time records

There’s nothing quite like a game-show winning streak. For the ordinary people it feels like a win, being able to take control of the game with a secret power that they can show the world. That’s certainly the case for Jeopardy! contestant Amy Schneider, the Oakland, California-based engineering manager whose 39-game winning streak is the second-highest in the show’s 56-year history.

And funnily enough, the contestant in first place, Ken Jennings — whose 2004 run wrapped after 74 straight wins — was the one hosting as Amy made new history.

Schneider’s run started with a come-from-behind victory back on Nov. 17, 2021, when she went into Final Jeopardy behind five-day champ Andrew He. Schneider was the only contestant that correctly identified Manhattan’s burial site for Alexander Hamilton, and other U.S. Treasury secretaries early in the 20th century. It started an ongoing run which has been well past the New Year.

It’s hard not to be charmed by Amy, who apparently hypes herself up before every game the same way I did before high school basketball games: thinking about the lyrics to “Lose Yourself” by Eminem. She’s described the game show as her “Olympics,” explaining to Jennings that “I’m not going to be this good at anything else, probably.”

Until Schneider’s run, the pantheon of Jeopardy! Jennings and James Holzhauer were the only masters who have dominated domination in this field. Matt Amodio was also a master, as well as Brad Rutter. The top three positions in In were held by the quartet. Jeopardy!’s four categories of success: consecutive games won, highest winnings in regular season play, single-game winnings, and all-time winnings including tournaments, the show’s equivalent of a postseason.

Jennings, whose 2004 run has become the stuff of legend, still owns the “most consecutive games” and “regular season winnings” categories with his 74-episode stint and $2,520,700 prize winnings. Holzhauer is a professional gambler who won more in one game. Jeopardy!With $131,127, Rutter has more money than anyone else. Rutter was the first to appear on the show’s game-show in 2000, and most recently in 2020. He is still the champion of tournaments-included cash.

Fans have noted that each champion has their own style. Analyse of r/Jeopardy with data from the fan-created J! Archive shows Amodio has been able to get more correct questions per game than Schneider but she’s also gotten less wrong questions.

Schneider also bets more conservatively than elite champions. Holzhauer only required 27 games in order to surpass the $2 million mark. Schneider required 28 games in order to reach half the amount.

But if these wagers are working for Schneider, there’s certainly no reason for her to stop. Her domination in her games is clear and consistent: She typically stays on top of her opponents throughout the first round, widens the gap throughout Double Jeopardy, and enters Final Jeopardy at a point where a correct or incorrect answer truly doesn’t matter. This was the case in her 35th consecutive victory, when even losing $20,000 through an incorrect guess on the name of France’s national theater award (the Molière) wasn’t enough to change the final outcome.

Schneider has been the subject of some negative reactions, some calling for gender-segregated divisions and some nonsensically calling Schneider transphobic. Jeopardy!This is absurd for a game show in which the most physical activity is achieved by pressing a buzzer.

Schneider seems to be able to steamroller over her opponents just as effortlessly as the haters. On the subreddit her fans already placed their in Jeopardy!’s Mount Rushmore.