Featured J!Buzz

With $229,801 in winnings Hannah Wilson is now an eight-game Jeopardy! champion!

Hannah, a data scientist from Chicago, scored her eighth consecutive victory on Friday in a runaway against Skyler Gailing, an editorial & community associate from Exeter, New Hampshire, and Victoria Ford, an independent bookstore owner from Saint Paul, Minnesota.

“It feels unreal,” Hannah said of her eight-game streak. “I can’t believe you are talking about me and not a different Hannah Wilson.”

When Hannah arrived on set for her first appearance, she said she set out with the goal to simply “win a game.”

“I wanted to say, ‘I’m a Jeopardy! champion,’ but eight days was not in the pick,” Hannah said. “I did not think this was going to happen.”

Now, Hannah has gone on to amass nearly $230 thousand in winnings and scored a spot in the next Tournament of Champions, an achievement in which she said feels like a “dream come true.”

As a longtime Jeopardy! fan, Hannah said she always wanted to compete on the show, but didn’t actually try out to compete until after watching Amy Schneider’s 40-game run during Season 38.

“She actually kind of inspired me to try out because I’m trans,” Hannah said of Amy. “She was like this amazing champion and she showed that, you know, she could just be out there. That was really important to me.”

While Hannah has quite a few games to win to catch up to her Jeopardy! idol on the Leaderboard of Legends, she said she is happy for now to be playing the game she loves. 

“Every game is just fun to play,” Hannah said. “I love meeting the contestants. I think that’s honestly my favorite part.”