On Jan. 8, the Jeopardy! superstar not only scored her 28th consecutive win, she earned $42,200. Friday’s winnings brought her total to $1,019,001. “It feels amazing, it feels strange,” said Schneider of reaching this milestone in a statement from Jeopardy!. “It’s not a sum of money I ever anticipated would be associated with my name.” Schneider has already broken several records. She is the first woman to earn more than $1 million in regular season play. She is the fifth millionaire in the history of Jeopardy!. In regular season play the only players who have bested her are Matt Amodio ($1,518,601), James Holzhauer ($2,462,216) and Ken Jennings ($2,520,700). An engineering manager from Oakland, California, Schneider showed her skill early on. After winning just five times, she qualified for Jeopardy!’s tournament of champions. Schneider who is transgender is the the first trans contestant to enter the elite competition. Early on Schneider shared her reflections on Twitter. “I didn’t want to make too much about being trans, at least in the context of the show. I am a trans woman, and I’m proud of that fact, but I’m a lot of other things, too!” Tweeeted Schneider. “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. 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!” Schneider’s big win comes on the heels of her robbery one week ago Sunday. She lost her credit cards, phone and id. “…I then couldn’t really sleep last night, and have been dragging myself around all day trying to replace everything,” she Tweeted on Jan. 3 while assuring everyone that she was fine. But then on top of that she got sick. “I’m feeling mostly better now, but I’m going to extend my posting break through tomorrow,” Schneider Tweeted on January 6. For Schneider, who has been applying to get on the show for more than a decade and has been watching Jeopardy! for about 35 years, her win and all the support she has received is especially meaningful. “I’ll get back to the backlogged game threads tomorrow,” she Tweeted after it was revealed that she had one over $1 million. “But I just want to acknowledge how overwhelmed I am by the things being written about me, and about what this run means. This has been a life-changing experience, thank you all so so much for your kindness and support.” Next, Fans Had No Idea About Alex Trebek’s Secret Job Behind the Jeopardy! Podium
