Mayim Bialik Reveals Her True Feelings About Jeopardy's Amy Schneider
Over the years, the hit game show "Jeopardy!" has had a number of standout champions that continue to grow year after year. For one, there's James Holzhauer, who holds the title for the highest earnings in a single game at $131,127. Then there's Brad Rutter who has the highest all-time winnings, including tournaments, at $4,938,436. Of course, there's also the now guest host, Ken Jennings, who will go down in "Jeopardy!" fame with his 74-game winning streak, according to Jeopardy.com.
But hot on the tail of Jennings' record was contestant Amy Schneider. Schneider made her "Jeopardy!" debut on November 17, 2021, and would go on to secure wins for the next two months. Her winning streak just recently ended on January 26 after 40 games, with winnings totaling $1,382,800, which earned her the spot under Jennings in the "Jeopardy!" hall of fame for the number of consecutive games won.
Schneider also happens to be a transgender woman, something she's been outspoken about on the show and in public. She wore a transgender flag pin on the episode from November 25, 2021, and explained why in a series of tweets. "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," she wrote.
Schneider has been inspiring people around the world, including "Jeopardy!" guest host, Mayim Bialik.
Mayim Bialik said Amy Schneider's run was 'historic'
Guest "Jeopardy!" host and former "Big Bang Theory" star Mayim Bialik praised champion Amy Schneider's run on the game show. Speaking to Hollywood Life, she said that Schneider's run was "historic" in more ways than one and called her a "really, really powerful figure." She explained, "I consider Jeopardy a nonpartisan, non-political place. It's a place where people want to tune in to be entertained by people in tremendous intellect. And Amy did that."
Bialik also emphasized that representation matters, which she said was another reason Schneider's time on "Jeopardy!" was so groundbreaking. But, Bialik added that her 13- and 16-year-old kids argued that Schneider's run shouldn't even be called historic because it should just be accepted.
Writing about her own experience on "Jeopardy!," Schneider said the public's acceptance of her comes from the labor of all of the trans activists that came before her. "[They] have devoted themselves to creating the conditions that exist today, where a trans 'Jeopardy!' champion can be, for most people, uncritically accepted and celebrated as the person she is," she wrote for Jeopardy.com. "And the most rewarding thing I've gained from my 'Jeopardy!' run is the ability to finally say that I, too, have helped that cause."