Jeopardy Contestant Amy Schneider has Been Defeated

Jeopardy! champ Amy Schneider lost the second-longest consecutive win streak on Wednesday ending a 40-game run. 

Schneider won her 39 game on Monday and became the contestant with second-most consecutive wins of all time, until Wednesday when she was defeated by Rhone Talsma, a librarian from Chicago, who didn’t allow her to detrhone current co-host Ken Jennings. 

“It’s really been an honor,” says Schneider in a statement released to the media. 

“To know that I am one of the most successful people at a game I’ve loved since I was a kid and to know that I am part of its history now, I just don’t know how to process it.” 

“I had thought that Rhone was going to be tough going into it.” says Schneider. “I loved hanging out with him; we had a great conversation before the tapping, but I would tell that he was here to play and that he was going to be good.” 

Schneider wrote on an Instagram post, “Congratulations to Rhone! I talked about how this was the most fun group of contestants I played with, and Rhone was a big reason for that.”  

She finalized her winning streak with more than $1.3 million in prize money. 

Schneider is the first trans contest to qualify for the Tournament of Champions, a competition that puts the best 15 players from the prior season against each other. 

In an interview with Good Morning America, Schneider was asked what was her secret for success which she said “I never expected to do this well, I did expect to be on Jeopardy! And to do all right, I just never expected to do quite this well.”  

She also mentioned that her best part has been to be on TV as her true self and been able to represent the trans community. 

Schneider has been on the show since November 17, when she won during the Trans Awareness week.

Photos courtesy of Instagram