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00:00Already at Jeopardy! legend, contestant Amy Schneider has been on a roll recently.
00:05In December, Schneider, who is an engineering manager from Oakland,
00:09California, became the first transgender contestant to qualify for the Tournament of Champions.
00:13After January 14th's game, she broke the record for most consecutive wins by a female contestant,
00:19after becoming the first woman to earn $1 million in Jeopardy! winnings a week prior.
00:24She also became the new third-place record holder, replacing another longtime Jeopardy!
00:28champ James Holzhauer, but she's since climbed higher in the ranks.
00:32After winning on January 24th, Schneider surpassed Matt Amadeo's 38-game streak with her 39th win.
00:39As of the making of this video, Schneider is on a 40-game winning streak,
00:43putting her behind only Ken Jennings, who had a whopping 74 straight wins.
00:48Her 40-day total winnings? A stunning $1,382,800.
00:54However, Schneider says she isn't as confident as she may make it seem on TV,
00:58specifically referencing the January 4th episode. She tweeted,
01:01"'Well, that one was a bit closer. George and Greg kept me sweating about
01:05whether I'd manage the runaway down to the last Daily Double.'"
01:08She also thanked her fellow contestants in the tweet for keeping it a really competitive game.
01:13Schneider's streak has been hot enough to earn speculation as to whether she might replace
01:17the late Alex Trebek as the permanent show host. Schneider told the Los Angeles Times on January 17th,
01:23"'It would certainly be a cool experience. It's a lot harder than it looks. Whether I'd
01:27actually even be good at it, I don't know. But yeah, I'd certainly consider it if somebody asked.'"
01:32In a January 24th Good Morning America interview, Schneider enthused about using
01:36her sudden fame as a way of representing the transgender community, saying,
01:40"'I think that the best part for me has been being on TV as my true self,
01:43expressing myself and representing the entire community of trans people,
01:47and just kind of showing a different thing than maybe some people have seen of just being a smart,
01:52confident woman and just doing something super normal like being on Jeopardy!'
01:56Schneider, who was voted most likely to appear on Jeopardy! in the eighth grade,
01:59also spilled some interesting secrets to her success. She said, quote,
02:03"'Being curious and spending my life learning a lot of stuff is the main secret.'"
02:07While also noting that she practices buzzing in by clicking a ballpoint pen.
02:12"'I was good in school. I got good grades. I won the spelling bee.'"
02:16Alas, it hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows for the Jeopardy! champ,
02:19as she has been subjected to transphobic bullying online. But make no mistake,
02:24she's not one to back down. She tweeted,
02:26"'I'd like to thank all the people who have taken the time during this busy holiday season to reach
02:30out and explain to me that actually I'm a man. Every single one of you is the first person ever to
02:35make that very clever point, which had never once before crossed my mind.'"
02:39Still, Schneider is quick to point out that she has many other layers aside from being transgender.
02:44She explained in an interview with the Daily Beast,
02:47"'Being trans is an important, huge foundational part of my identity and also not. I'm not going
02:53on Jeopardy! to be trans on Jeopardy! I'm going on Jeopardy! to try to win some money.'"
02:57"'That there's not an area in life in which we can't succeed and excel.'"
03:03While Schneider may be well-versed in putting online trolls in their place, she was perhaps not equally as
03:08ready to deal with the traumatic ordeal of being robbed following her 21st consecutive win on the
03:13popular game show. She tweeted on January 3rd,
03:16"'Hi, all. So first off, I'm fine. But I got robbed yesterday. Lost my ID,
03:21credit cards, and phone. I then couldn't really sleep last night and have been dragging myself
03:25around all day trying to replace everything.'"
03:28Upon learning the news, a representative for Jeopardy! issued a statement that read,
03:31"'We were deeply saddened to hear about this incident, and we reached out to
03:35Amy privately to offer our help in any capacity.'"
03:38Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
03:40even more Nicki Swift videos on our channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.
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