Oakland’s Amy Schneider breaks Matt Amodio’s ‘Jeopardy!’ winning streak

With her 39th straight victory, “Jeopardy!” champion Amy Schneider officially broke Matt Amodio’s summer winning streak on Monday night.

The engineering manager from Oakland surpassed Matt Amodio for no. 2 in terms of longest winning streaks on “Jeopardy!”

Schneider won Monday night’s game even though she faltered on the Final Jeopardy question. But she entered the round thousands ahead of her competitors, Toledo nurse Joanne Mercer and New York attorney Erin O’Leary. So even though Schneider lost $25,000 after betting on the wrong answer, she still ended the night with 36 correct answers and a final score $12,600.

The question was: “Named for a benefactor, it was established in 1893 to house artifacts from the nearby World’s Columbian Exposition.” The correct answer was the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, named after Chicago business magnate Marshall Field. Schneider incorrectly answered “What is the Grant museum?”

Schneider, 42, was declared the night’s winner and the new holder of a “Jeopardy!” record. She also brought her total earnings to to $1,319,800. She is the highest earning female contestant in the show’s history and the fourth highest earning contestant during regular play.

Since beginning the game on Nov. 17, Schneider has racked up game-show accolades alongside her daily earnings. With her 11th win in December, she became the first transgender contestant to earn a spot in the Tournament of Champions. On Jan. 7, she became the first woman to earn more than $1 million in the game.

She also has gained fans with her active Twitter feed. She talks about her personal life and, somewhat modestly, about being an icon for the LGBTQ community. Schneider also writes threads breaking down each game and reveals her techniques for absorbing a seemingly infinite number facts about history, science or pop culture.

Amodio’s 38-game winning streak, dubbed the “Amodio Rodeo,” came to an end in October. With $1,518,601 in earnings, the Yale Ph.D. student from Medina, Ohio is still ahead of Schneider in total earnings. So are James Holzhauer, with $2,462,216, and Ken Jennings with $2,520,700.

Schneider, originally from Dayton, Ohio, began her winning streak a month after Amodio’s departure. She also is second to Jennings when it comes to winning streaks. Jennings, who was Monday night’s host and who shares hosting duties with Mayim Bialik, enjoyed his 74-game winning streak in 2004.