Amy Schneider wins 'Jeopardy!' Tournament of Champions

"Jeopardy!" fan-favorite Amy Schneider won the quiz show's annual Tournament of Champions Monday, besting software developer Andrew He and Naval Postgraduate School professor Sam Buttrey in the six-episode finals.

“I feel amazing,” Schneider, an Oakland, California, writer, said after her win. “Earlier in the finals, I had this sudden moment of seeing myself and being, like, ‘I’m on stage in the Tournament of Champions finals,’ and that was crazy. And I won! It’s a great feeling.”

Schneider — whose 40-game winning streak from Nov. 17, 2021, through Jan. 26, 2022, placed her second on the show's list of all-time champions and set historic firsts for women and trans contestants — claimed the $250,000 grand prize in addition to her $94,300 winnings over the six games.

In addition to their own winnings, second-place finisher He, from San Francisco, took home a $100,000 prize, while Buttrey, from Pacific Palisades, California, received $50,000 for third place.

The first contestant to take three games in the finals wins the tournament. Schneider had won days two, four and six, while He took days one and three, and Buttrey day five. The Tournament had kicked off with quarterfinal rounds beginning Oct. 31.

The Tournament marked a rematch between He and Schneider, who had ended He’s five-game streak and kicked off her historic 40-game run.

“I both wanted to [compete against him] and was afraid of facing him again,” Schneider said. “I knew he was one of the top competitors in the field. He was definitely someone that I knew could beat me because he very nearly did before, and he did a couple of times here as well. Any of the three of us really could have won if a very small number of things had gone differently. I’m glad we got a really fair chance to test our skills against each other, and I’d love to play him again someday, somehow.”

Schneider, the first openly transgender contestant to compete in and win the Tournament of Champions, said she recognizes the importance of representation.

“I’m going to keep going out there and being me,” she said. “Being in places where people like me haven’t been before, it’s a very powerful thing to do.”