JEOPARDY! contestant Hannah Wilson has won a hard-fought battle on Friday’s episode with a towering three-day total of $90,201.
Despite a Daily Double stumble and all three contestants missing an “easy” Betty White clue – there are high hopes for Hannah Wilson across the board.
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Hannah is a data scientist from Chicago, Illinois who remained at the winner’s podium with a two-day total of $72K going in.
That figure is no joke, in fact, it’s the second-highest two-day amount this entire season.
As a result, the returning champ has gotten serious buzz from fans and even fellow transgender trivia titan Amy Schneider after arriving on Jeopardy! screens just Wednesday.
Hannah faced Brian Alzua, a biocompatibility scientist from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Ashwin Phadnis, an attorney originally from Hillsdale, New Jersey.
During the first round, Mayim Bialik read the $400 clue under “Everything’s Coming Up Rose.”
“In 1986 she won an Emmy award for playing Rose Nylund on ‘The Golden Girls.'”
Ashwin guessed: Who is “McClanahan?” and Brian guessed: “Who is Bea Arthur?” – Hannah didn’t buzz in,
“Betty White,” Mayim said, clearing the awkward silence of the Triple Stumper.
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Hannah found both Daily Doubles in the second round. She also impressively ended up with 17 clues correct and 2 incorrect, though she went 33 and 0 last episode.
Hannah also missed the last Daily Double dropping $2.5K, suddenly the game was far from over going into Final Jeopardy.
Hannah had $13,900, Ashwin had $9,800 and Brian had $7,400.
Final Jeopardy under: “Team Names” read: “An MLB team got this name in 1902 after some of its players defected to a new crosstown rival, leaving young replacements.”
Hannah and Ashwin were both correct with the Cubs and Ashwin swung for the fences adding $9,798 to have $19,598.
Thankfully, Hannah wagered smart, she added $5,701 and prevailed with $19,601, or by just $3.
As her giant combined score was shown, she looked thrilled and the crowd roared- definitely buying what she was selling.
‘STILL A SOLID WIN!’
Fans on Reddit spotted that the sudden star’s third stint was not quite at the same caliber, but they think she’ll rest up over the weekend and keep winning- and future contestants should brush up on their Betty White knowledge.
One user wrote: “Not a strong a game as Hannah from what we’ve seen previously, but still a solid win.
“She’s been kicking a**, and I really believe she has the potential to be a contender for the Tournament of Champions if she hits 5 games next week.”
Another wrote: “I’m usually never one to criticize contestants’ lack of knowledge….but I did find the Betty White triple stumper rather painful!”
A third wrote: “Congrats to Hannah once again!! Not as glowing as yesterday but I’m hoping that great things are coming after this weekend.”
A fourth simply penned: “Betty White a triple stumper?! Open the trapdoor.” And another: “Especially after the other two stars were off the board. Good grief!”
“Talk about the easiest layup ever!” wrote one more, as a sixth penned: “I was shocked at that triple stumper as well. I was like, it’s Betty White!!!! Please get this one… And she’s an icon.. So I was slightly sad no one got it.”
On December 31, 2021, it was reported that the actress and comedian had passed away just shy of her 100th birthday.
Even Jeopardy! die-hards may not be clued in on her decades-long friendship with announcer Johnny Gilbert, 94.
“She was everything they say and more- We got to be really good friends,” the iconic voice of the game show said in a 2022 interview.
WE STAN-NAH
Hannah is a transgender woman who received her bachelor’s degree in Geography with honors from the University of Chicago.
She revealed on stage she’s the 18th ranked crossword puzzle solver in the U.S. and second in the midwest behind a man named “Eric.”
As per her LinkedIn bio, she also plays piano, writes, and makes rugs – as she mentioned tonight- about astronomy.
Hannah has gone 74 correct and 6 incorrect on clues total and has found 6 of 9 Daily Doubles so far.
Fans have high expectations, one writing to Facebook: “Hannah’s incredible. She’s going to be around for a long time. She could be in the top echelon of Jeopardy! winners.”
She clearly has a broad base of knowledge, and I’m looking forward to seeing her go on a run.”
“It’ll be interesting if Hannah survives long enough to encounter Ben Chan on May 15th.”
AMY SCHNEIDER ‘MY PRESS AGENT’
Jeopardy! fans aren’t the only ones geeking out, as some of the show’s most major stars took to Twitter telling any haters to buzz off.
Amy Schneider tweeted: Huge congratulations to Hannah Wilson!!! Welcome to the Guild of Jeopardy Champion Trans Women, one of us will be in contact shortly to explain the secret handshake and so forth.”
Hannah then wrote on Reddit: “Yeah I’m trans! Amy was kind of acting as my press agent there, haha.”
Mattea Roach also clapped back on Twitter at anyone trying to give new star Hannah a hard time, they wrote: “lots of people hating from outside the club…”
It’s been a quiet few months on the game show- there hasn’t been a four-plus day streak since March nor a $200,000-plus winner since Troy Meyer in February.
Meanwhile, September’s 2023 Tournament of Champions – which consists of 4+ day winners from the current season – as it currently stands, is only male contestants, all of which adds up to right place, right time for Hannah.
MAY-IM, JUNE, JULY…
Meanwhile, actress Mayim returned as host this week for the first time on regularly airing Jeopardy! in quite some time.
It had been 10 months barring a recent teen tournament that she’s hosted, and she opened Monday’s show admitting it’s been a while.
“I’m thrilled to be back on the Alex Trebek stage,” Mayim said before launching into her first game back.
GOAT champion Ken is off the board until next fall as Mayim is hosting the remaining four months of the season.
His hiatus is not going over well with everyone as one fan wrote on Twitter this week: “Took five minutes before I started to miss Ken.”
Another wrote: “I love Jeopardy but can’t stand those pauses she does. She’s probably a really nice person but damn she’s annoying with the pauses.”
And a third tweeted tonight: “I don’t understand this. Respectfully, I thought Mayim was only going to be hosting ‘special’ tournaments. I don’t get it.”
Ken will not be helming regularly airing episodes until next September.
When Ken returns he will kick Season 40 off with the Tournament of Champions, which will be the start of the season.
Ken will be hosting the three-week-long $500K Jeopardy! Masters tournament in primetime on ABC starting Monday, but otherwise, the largely preferred 74-time winner-turned-host will not be seen until then.
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