Amy Schneider secured her place in the Jeopardy! record books when she won over $1.3 million in 2022 over the course of 40 games, but that’s not where her contribution to the game ends. Perhaps even more important was the fact that Schneider was the first openly trans contestant to qualify for the Tournament of Champions (which she went on to win), and now as she prepares to release her memoir this October, Schneider spoke openly about representation on America’s favorite quiz show and explained why her book will get into the “messiness” she’s experienced in life.
There is no arguing Amy Schneider’s greatness when it comes to Jeopardy!. Her 40-game win streak is second only to Ken Jennings, whose 74-game run may just be untouchable. Schneider sits at No. 5 in the list of Jeopardy!’s all-time biggest winners, after winning the TOC and being one of just six contestants to compete on the inaugural season of Jeopardy! Masters. It’s wild to think that there may have been a scenario in which Schneider didn’t think the Alex Trebek stage was exactly where she belonged, but that’s exactly how much representation matters, she said on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast:
I didn’t realize how important representation was, and I didn’t know how true it was that you need to see somebody like you in a given position — whether it’s Jeopardy! champion, whether it’s anything else — that seeing somebody like you in that position can make you believe that you can do it. I wouldn’t have said that I didn’t believe that I could be on Jeopardy! and yet, until I saw other trans people on Jeopardy!, I kind of didn’t. Even though intellectually if you would have asked me, I would have said, ‘Oh sure, anybody should be and could be on Jeopardy!,’ but nonetheless until I had seen somebody, there was some part of me that didn’t believe it.
Amy Schneider’s success on Jeopardy! gave her and other LGBTQ+ contestants a platform to introduce a different lifestyle to many of the show’s viewers. Another trans contestant, Hannah Wilson — who will appear on this year’s Tournament of Champions after winning $229,801 in an 8-game streak in May — said watching Schneider was “really inspiring” to her.
Amy Schneider said she’s conscious of her impact on the show and is grateful for it, but she said she also knows that what people saw on Jeopardy! was only a small part of her. So it was important, she said, while writing In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life, which is set to be released in October, to include the less-relatable, family-friendly aspects of her journey. She explained:
I worried that seeing just the good in my life and seeing just the parts that are easiest to connect to might give people the impression that when they come across other trans people out in the world who are less approachable, who have more messiness in their life, that I could be used as an excuse to write other trans people off. And so I wanted to talk about the fact that I have had messiness in my life. I, like many trans people, have done things with drug use, I’ve had a checkered sexual history and all these sorts of things, and I wanted to show that none of that is incompatible with the Jeopardy! champion that you’ve seen, and so none of that is a reason to write anybody off.
Amy Schneider’s Jeopardy! career isn’t over. She’ll appear next in the first Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, which will draw the best contestants from past seasons as a qualifying tournament for the next Jeopardy! Masters tournament. No date has been set for that yet, but you can rewatch Schneider’s most recent performance, as ABC will begin re-airing Jeopardy! Masters at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 25. Stay up to date with all of the upcoming premieres with our 2023 TV schedule.
