Midway through our interview, the check for Amy Schneider’sJeopardywinnings arrives at her home.
It takes her a moment to reorient herself to the conversation.
“Sorry,” she tells EW with a laugh.
Challenger Rhone Talsma defeated Amy Schneider on ‘Jeopardy’.Casey Durkin/Jeopardy Productions, Inc.
“We’re getting very excited by seeing this check here.”
“We’ll be forever proud of it,” Schneider says of her performance.
“It was much more than I anticipated going into it.
‘Jeopardy’ champion Amy Schneider.Courtesy Jeopardy Productions, Inc.
So I’m glad that I’ve beenhelping the show outas well.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How does it feel to finally be able to talk about yourJeopardyexperience in its entirety?
AMY SCHNEIDER:It’s definitely a relief.
Matt Amodio on ‘Jeopardy’.Casey Durkin/Jeopardy! Productions
The last three months or so of keeping the secret has been a bit of a struggle.
That’s definitely a good thing about this finally ending.
What was your mindset like going into that final game?
I had a feeling that day that it might be my last day there.
I could kind of feel that slipping away.
What gave you that sense?
Well, he looked good in rehearsal and that sort of thing, but a lot of people had.
And Rhone was exactly that way.
What was going through your mind as the game progressed?
Did it feel like you had lost a step as you were playing?
For most of the game, no.
It felt like it was going a lot like many of my other games had gone.
I knew at that point that there was no way I could keep it from going to Final Jeopardy.
So that’s when I started to really be aware of the possibility [that I could lose].
And then after the game, how did you feel once the reality of the loss set in?
A lot of different feelings.
I mean, the primary one was sadness.
But it was definitely mixed with some feeling of relief.
Because that was really hard.
Let’s go back to the beginning: What was your history and experience withJeopardybefore you became a contestant?
With us watching along, they always wanted to teach us as we were watching.
When did you start trying out for the show?
It was something like maybe 14 or 15 years ago.
The first taping date that I was scheduled for was shortly beforeAlex Trebek passed away.
And then at the last minute, there was some kind of COVID thing that canceled taping.
They rescheduled me, and then, before my next date to be there, Alex did pass away.
How did you prepare for the show during all those delays?
What were some of those areas where you had knowledge gaps that you tried to fill in?
I definitely have consistently struggled a bit with popular music.
But outside of that I don’t really know what’s going on.
So that one was always a challenging one, because it’s just such a broad topic to study.
What inspired you to do that?
It wasn’t something I was really planning on.
I originally just did it for the first game just because I felt like it.
And then people really seemed to respond to that and really enjoy it.
My audience already knew a lot of the basics but really wanted to get into the nitty-gritty.
Is there anything that sums up what your general strategy was like during gameplay?
I just wanted to be in the moment and answering questions.
You’ve been part of arecent run of big winning streaks onJeopardy.
Obviously we had Matt Amodio, and there was also Jonathan Fisher, who won 11 games.
Ofonly a dozen peopleto get more than 10 victories onJeopardy, three did so in less than a year.
What’s your take on why we’ve seen so many long streaks recently?
I’m not really sure.
Other than that, I thinkJames Holzhauersaid, “There’s not a reason.
It’s just statistical clustering.
Sometimes this sort of thing will happen.”
I tend to think that’s probably most of the answer.
But if there’s anything else, I think it’s the revolution in the years since James played.
So I think that that may be a factor as well.
Was that your experience?
Did you start thinking more seriously about gameplay and strategy after James' run?
Not exactly, but that’s partly because I’d always been thinking about it.
It’s hard to do that in the moment.
Are you already prepping for that?
I’ve been looking at some of the old Tournaments of Champions and trying to gauge the question difficulty.
I’ve kind of been planning out how I plan to start preparing for it.
So I just want to get myself used to writing that answer down.
You’ve talked a lot about how meaningful it is to you to have represented the transgender community onJeopardy.
How has that part of the experience felt?
It’s definitely the most meaningful, rewarding experience out of all of it.
We’re randomly distributed in the population, and we’re just like anybody else.
[I wanted to] just show people a trans person being successful in this very mainstream field.
The upper ranks ofJeopardychampions have also been sort of a boys' club for a while.
It’s definitely great.
I’ve got the ability to take a chance in that way.
I haven’t decided yet; it depends on what comes along and whether it seems worth it.
But that’s definitely something that may be happening.
Does it feel different now actually having the check in your hand?
You know, I want to get it in the bank, but yes, it does!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
