Super champ Amy Schneider’s historic Jeopardy! run wound down last week after 40 wins. Co-host Mayim Bialik wasn’t on hand for this streak, given that she trades off duties with Ken Jennings, who Amy loves (no offense intended to Mayim). Mayim recently spoke with The Wrap (to promote Call Me Kat‘s new season), and Amy’s streak definitely came up with the Big Bang Theory admitting how difficult it was to not tell her co-stars that she didn’t meet Amy (because that would have clued everyone into Amy eventually departing).
As well, the subject of super-champs came up, given that Matt Amodio recently nailed 38 wins, meaning that he held the second-place in consecutive wins before Amy busted in and claimed that same status. While pondering why there appear to be so many super-champs these days (The Ringer’s Claire McNear recently explored the subject), Mayim discussed her hunch, which is that people aren’t necessarily smarter, but there’s a lot more information out there for the taking:
“I think it’s kind of like the stock market. Like, if you look at it over a period of five years, 10 years, I think there’s probably more of these kinds of trends. Do I think people are smarter now? No. Is there more information available that never was before? Absolutely. I think it’s been a really fun and special time. But you know, that’s also the fun of ‘Jeopardy!’ You never know what’s going to happen. Someone can seem like they’re winning, winning, winning, and anything can happen — they can have a tummy ache. And that kind of changes the course of their day.”
Mayim could very well be correct, given that James Holtzhauer nabbed 32 wins not too long ago, although it doesn’t seem likely that anyone will eclipse Ken Jennings’ 74 wins anytime soon. But you never know!
Meanwhile, one can hope that Amy finally got that check for her $1,382,800 in winnings (minus taxes), and we’ll soon see Mayim return to Jeopardy!, where she and Jennings are trading off host duties until this season concludes over the summer.
(Via The Wrap)