‘Jeopardy!’ Hasn’t Had a Player Like Amy Schneider
OAKLAND, Calif. — When Amy Schneider’s 40-day “Jeopardy!” winning streak ended, she said she handed out thank you notes to the crew, briefly chatted with other contestants, then excused herself. “I went in the bathroom, cried for about 30 or 40 seconds, pulled myself together and headed out,” Ms.
Schneider said from her sunny apartment in Oakland on Friday. The way she recounted her defeat mirrored the way she played on “Jeopardy!”: quickly, efficiently and with matter-of-fact warmth. “It wasn’t just a feeling of sadness, there was a sense of relief,” she added. “It was so exhausting.” Ms.
Schneider’s continued success on the show meant that once her episodes started taping at the end of September, she was competing in five games a day, twice a week for several consecutive weeks, commuting from Oakland to Los Angeles.
By the time she filmed her last episode on Nov. 9, she had taken a demotion at work, used all her paid time off and taken several unpaid days in order to keep her job as a software engineer.
