James Holzhauer dominates 'Jeopardy!', But what does life look like after the show?

by



[ad_1]

James Holzhauer is officially "Jeopardy!"

Not only did he eventually dominate the list of highest winnings for a game, but Mr. Holzhauer also became the second competitor to win more than a million dollars in regular season.

For some competitors, winning could result in 15 minutes of fame and a small unexpected windfall. But for players like Mr. Holzhauer, getting records, fame and big winnings can be transformative, creating opportunities and providing a level of financial security unthinkable to many Americans.

We met some stars of "Jeopardy!" To ask how their passage in the series had affected their lives.

Before becoming a legend of "Jeopardy!", Ken Jennings was a 29-year-old computer programmer living in Salt Lake City. He wondered if it was possible to break out of a career in coding.

"My wife said I always talked about going to law school, it was how desperate I was," he joked.

Mr. Jennings had a dual specialization in English and computer science and still wanted to write, but after graduating and getting engaged, he found a job in a technology start-up to pay the bills. Then he qualified for "Jeopardy!"

In 2004, Mr. Jennings has won 74 games in a row, grossing over $ 2.5 million. Nobody has nearly defeated his series (the closest challenger has won 20 consecutive games), although Mr Holzhauer is getting closer.

This month, Mr. Holzhauer became the only competitor to partner with Mr. Jennings to win more than $ 1 million in regular season games. (Another competitor, Brad Rutter, won more than one or the other, but he won the vast majority of his winnings – over $ 4.5 million – in more tournament matches difficult.)

For Mr. Jennings, "Jeopardy!" Has dramatically changed the course of his life. "It changed what I did every day," he said.

After the show, Mr. Jennings decided to write a book on the history and appeal of the quiz in America. In 2006, he published "Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive and Compulsive World of Question and Answer Enthusiasts", which allowed him to continue.

"Every book is sold better than the last, which is what publishers like," he said.

Since then, his books include a trivia almanac, a demystification of myths passed on to children, and a book on how comedy has dominated culture. Mr. Jennings says he 's currently working on his 13th book, a travel guide featuring various representations of the afterlife throughout human history.

(When he does not write any books, Mr. Jennings writes about the journey and anecdotes online.) He hosts, along with musician John Roderick, a podcast on historical anomalies titled "Omnibus!")

More than anything, his move to "Jeopardy!" Allowed him to break away from a rigid career.

"Honestly, the series has brought a lot of things, that is, I'm no longer working from 9 am to 5 pm," he said. "I'm a freelancer, so I can be here when my kids come home from school, I can drive them to the bus, I can go to the college choir concert. For me, it means more than just money, honestly. "

For Larissa Kelly, her participation in the series in 2008 and 2009 was a lifeline for her and her husband, graduate students at the University of California at Berkeley, facing a job market in the middle of a recession.

"Have the money from" Jeopardy! "Meant that we had the freedom to think about where we want to go, what do we want to do," said Ms. Kelly, whose appearances have made her since then and since the biggest winners in the history of the series, with gains of more than $ 660,000.

The money allowed Ms. Kelly and her husband, Jeff Hoppes, to buy a home in Richmond, California, and the freedom to look for a job related to what they like.

"In the last six or seven years we have both had professional anecdotes, and it was possible for us to do so in a way that, in my opinion, would not have been possible without the cushion provided by" Jeopardy! ", " she says.

Ms. Kelly is now editing questions for national university quiz tournaments, which organize national bowling championships at the junior, middle and high school levels. Mr. Hoppes is the organization's Vice President of Communications.

Unlike other champions of "Jeopardy!", However, Ms. Kelly does not have many opportunities to gloat. Not only was her sister and husband in the series, but Mr. Jennings, who beat her husband, is also a colleague of the national tournaments of academic issues.

"For many people, it is likely that they are the only person in their business to be the subject of" Jeopardy! She said. "For me, I will never be the first player of 'Jeopardy!' In my company."

Monica Thieu was technically still in high school at the time of her first appearance in the series, but as she was enrolled at the University of North Texas, she was allowed to compete in the university championship of the series in 2012.

Ms. Thieu won the title and $ 100,000, a prize that helped her pay for her tuition at Stanford University.

"We might not be able to afford it if we did not have the money from Jeopardy! She said.

At Stanford, Ms. Thieu worked in a psychology laboratory dedicated to the search for memory. She graduated in psychology in three years and is now a PhD. a student at Columbia University where she mainly studies how people perceive emotions.

The series, she said, has probably helped this career path.

"If I had been elsewhere, I might have done something else," she said. "I might have made my parents happy and attended medical school right now."

Ms. Thieu once again participated in "Jeopardy!" In 2013 and this year's "All Star Games" (in which she played on Mr. Jennings' team).

Since her first appearance, however, Ms. Thieu has avoided talking to people about her time in the series, lest it be defined.

"I do not want to be the girl of" Jeopardy! ", Did she say. "I'd like to be the girl who has these other hobbies and interests."

Fortunately, it did not pose many problems. Apart from a few fan meetings, Ms. Thieu has, for the most part, continued to live a life of anonymity.

Before Mr. Holzhauer removes the record this month, the title of the biggest win in a single game of "Jeopardy!" Belonged to Roger Craig. (Before him, it belonged to Mr. Jennings.)

Mr. Craig has become famous among the fans of the series, not only for this record – which he claims to have won $ 77,000 in a single game at the end of 2010 – but also for the way that he realized it.

To prepare for the game, Craig, who was completing his graduate studies at the time, used machine learning training to analyze tens of thousands of previous questions and answers from "Jeopardy! a website run by fans. He used his results to direct his studies for the show and refine his strategy during the match.

"It was probably the most important thing of my own and started to be known because it was also related to my work," Craig said.

But unlike the other big winners, his life has not changed much after his appearance in the series.

His substantial earnings gave him some financial freedom, but he still works in machine learning and artificial intelligence, now as a consultant, he said. And while people recognize it in the series, this recognition fades over time.

Participate in "Jeopardy!" And subsequent interviews with journalists have, however, helped strengthen Craig's ability to speak.

"Once you've done a TV show and you're in front of millions of people, talking to a few hundred or a few thousand people, it does not matter," he said.

[ad_2]

Source link