Amy Schneider continued to break “Jeopardy!” records with her 28th victory on Friday night, becoming the first woman in the show’s history to win more than $1 million in cumulative prize money. Schneider, an engineering manager from Oakland, California, is one of only four people to have ever broken the $1 million mark on the quiz show in regular-season play.
Since beginning her streak late last year, Schneider has won more games and more money than any other female contestant in the show’s history. Only three other contestants — Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer and Matt Amodio — have won more games and more money in the regular season.
When asked by Jennings, who is co-hosting the show for the rest of the season, how it felt to be a “Jeopardy!” millionaire, she simply responded, “pretty good.”
Schneider’s winnings now stand at $1,019,600, after taking home $42,200 on Friday night. She’s not yet close to third-place Amodio when it comes to winnings — he finished his streak at $1,518,601 — but she could overtake Holzhauer’s 32 wins in the coming days.
Schneider also broke records last year when she became the first transgender contestant to qualify for the Tournament of Champions. In November, she tweeted about why she had chosen to wear a trans flag pin on the show.
“The fact is, I don’t actually think about being trans all that often, and so when appearing on national television, I wanted to represent that part of my identity accurately: as important, but also relatively minor,” she wrote. “But I also didn’t want it to seem as if it was some kind of shameful secret. While it’s gratifying to know that people didn’t necessarily know I was trans until they read about it, I do want people to know that aspect of me. I think being trans is really cool!”
