Dethroned Jeopardy! had some words for her successor in the wake of her big loss, but it’s clear she harbors no hard feelings. On Wednesday, Schneider’s two-month reign atop the Jeopardy board came to an end, when she was defeated bu newcomer, Rhone Talsma. In a clip following Talsma’s victory, Schneider joked that she “was worried about” her competitor “all day.” Talsma quipped that he was “a little worried about” her as well.
“What an honor. I mean it,” Talsma added, then referring to Schneider as “amazing” and “formidable.” The former champ then returned praise, heralding Talsma for how well he played, especially a big Daily Double he won. Notably, interim host Ken Jennings, a former himself, joined Schneider in congratulating Talsma by saying that he was very “good on the buzzer” because he had not seen Schneider “get beaten much on speed.” Schneider then joked that she was handling the loss well because she’s still “got about $1.2 million more than my best case scenario in my imagining.”
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In an editorial for Jeopardy.com, Schneider reflected on her loss, and explained how she was feeling about her epic run on the quiz show. “Today, my Jeopardy! run enters the history books. It will appear in the archives as a 40-game win streak, running from Nov. 17, 2021 to Jan. 24, 2022, with winnings of $1,382,800 (plus $2,000 for the second-place finish in game 41). But for myself, none of those statistics are quite right: when it started, when it ended, what I gained.”
Schneinder continued, “When did my Jeopardy! run start? For me, it started in childhood, when my parents first began watching the ‘new guy,’ Alex Trebek, hosting a revival of a quiz show that had gone off the air a few months before I was born. Like so many people, Jeopardy! has been in the background of my life for as long as I can remember – a calm, comforting routine: 3 contestants, 61 clues, 3 Daily Doubles. Potent Potables, Potpourri, ‘genre.’”
The big winner added, “Every weeknight, month after month, year after year. It was a place that valued the same things I’d been taught to value: curiosity, collegiality, just a hint of pedantry, and above all, a sense that knowing things was fun! I always knew that I would find myself there someday, and while I didn’t know what would happen when I got there, I knew I wouldn’t regret finding out.”
