Imagine June Cleaver reading this headline. Why does their sexual preference warrant a headline?

Schneider, the top-performing out transgender contestant in the show's history, lost to Rhone Talsman, a Chicago librarian, ending her 40-game winning streak.

Schneider, the top-performing out transgender contestant in the show’s history, lost Wednesday to Rhone Talsma, a librarian from Chicago. He is also a member of the LGBTQ+ community, identifying as queer.

Schneider’s loss came after she won 40 consecutive games, second only to current Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings, who won 74 straight games in 2003. She is in fourth place for all-time regular season cash winnings with $1.382 million, behind Matt Amodio ($1.518 million), James Holzhauer ($2.462 million), and Jennings ($2.52 million). She is the top female winner in Jeopardy! history and the first woman to pass the million-dollar mark.

“It’s really been an honor,” Schneider said in a press release from the show’s production company. “To know that I’m one of the most successful people at a game I’ve loved since I was a kid and to know that I’m a part of its history now, I just don’t know how to process it.”

Talsma’s win was enabled by hitting a Daily Double late in the Double Jeopardy! round, which kept the game competitive going into Final Jeopardy! — Schneider had often built up an insurmountable lead during her streak. He then gave a correct response in Final Jeopardy!, and Schneider did not come up with any response.

“I had thought that Rhone was going to be tough going into it,” said Schneider, a software engineering manager from Oakland, Calif. “I loved hanging out with him, we had great conversation before the taping, but I could tell that he was here to play and that he was going to be good. I still came very close to winning, but I did feel like maybe I was slipping a little bit. And once it was clear that he was fast on the buzzer, I knew it was going to be a battle all the way.”

“I’m still in shock,” Talsma said. “This is my favorite show … I was so excited to be here, and I just wanted to do my best. I did not expect to be facing a 40-day champion, and I was excited to maybe see someone else slay the giant. I just really didn’t think it was going to be me, so I’m thrilled.”

Schneider will be back for the program’s Tournament of Champions this fall, and Amodio will be one of the contestants she faces. She is the first out trans contestant to qualify for the tournament, which pits the season’s top 15 winners against one another.

In a recent Advocate interview, Schneider said that providing positive representation of transgender people was even more valuable to her than the money she had won. “It’s definitely been the most rewarding part of the whole experience,” she said.
Talsma is a multimedia librarian at the Chicago Ridge Public Library. He has a bachelor’s degree in women’s and gender studies from Chicago’s DePaul University, with minors in LGBTQ studies and graphic design, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In a 2014 essay for a DePaul journal, he endorsed “queer anarchism” but allowed that remaking society along those lines would take considerable time and effort. “And so we must ask ourselves: how can we create intersectional queer autonomous zones within the context of capitalism and liberal democracy? I contend that the answer lies in how we, as queer people, construct our social worlds; specifically, we are obligated to create queer communities and politics which are truly inclusive and conscious.”

Talsma will face two new contestants Thursday.


LINK: https://www.advocate.com/telev...loss-queer-librarian

I had a feeling Amy wasn't much longer for the show. She missed more Final Jeopardy answers than she got, the last two weeks or so. Often losing more on her bets than she won.

Was a damn good run, though.

A friend of mine who is a Jeopardy addict seemed to think that they were letting this trans "Amy" go on far too long winning and there was an agenda.

I guess they finally ended that, that Final Jeopardy question was an easy one.

Are you intimating that Jeopardy is rigged?

Say it aint so, Joe!

I guess I see this too simply ... that Jeopardy is just a game show where it really does not matter where the mind is located in any particular body.

Enjoy watching ... and admire the knowledge of all the players no matter what "flavor" they are.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
A friend of mine who is a Jeopardy addict seemed to think that they were letting this trans "Amy" go on far too long winning and there was an agenda.

I did not get that impression with either her or Matt Amodio, but that was certainly the impression I got with James Holzhauer's last game--that either they rigged it or he threw it.

The show was becoming too predictable.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I guess they finally ended that, that Final Jeopardy question was an easy one.

I didn't get it, but I was surprised Amy didn't.

Guys, you have to put that show in your past. It's dead and gone, and if you can't see it by now, then you deserve to be exposed to this nonsense.

I am as serious as I can be. Jeopardy is as dead as Trebek. Make it a thing of the past. There's nothing you can do about this insanity but turn away from it, and that is what you should do.

Agree. I had a tin foil hat response to the post but deleted it and figured others would take that up for me. I used to wonder what influence stars like Trebek and Robert Osborn of TCM had over their programs. No need to wonder anymore. I dont recall Trebek calling attention to woke issues and I dont recall Osborn doing that either. My guess is Jeopardy hemorrhaged viewers after Trebek died and the powers that be had do something to kick up the numbers. As for me, I am done with woke Jeopardy.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I don't recall Trebek calling attention to woke issues and I don't recall Osborn doing that either.

I don't recall Jennings doing that during Amy's run, either. Or did he and I missed it?

All I recall was Amy mentioning, a couple times during the dialogue following the first break, that she "and her girlfriend" (?) "did this-or-that during one-or-another occasion." And I even only took note of that after it came to my attention she was trans. Otherwise I would've taken it as "me and my buddy..."

Nor do I recall any "wokism" in Jennings' conversation with Talsman. Did I miss that, too?

Personally, had it not been covered, elsewhere, I'd never have known Amy was a transgender. And Talsman certainly isn't the first gay contestant, male or female, to have been on the show.

I've always liked Jeopardy, but, TBH, never enough to actually dedicate time out of my life on a regular basis to watch it. My wife loves it, though, and she enjoys me watching it with her. So we do.

Jennings seems to be settling-in quite nicely. Still miss Trebek, but Jennings is doing a passable job.

Changed my mind on Mayim Bialik, though. After Jennings hosting the show for a while and them bringing back Bialik for the... Professors Tournament, was it?, both my wife and I were of the opinion we'd as soon they stay with Jennings, going forward.

Btw: The site that published that article, Advocate, is ©2022 Pride Publishing Inc. IOW: It's an LGBTQXYZ-oriented publication. It has nothing to do with the Jeopardy show, its owners, its sponsors, or anything else.

I'm glad that guy finally lost. I found him annoying.

/Mike Myer's voice on/

It's a man baby! Yeah!

/Mike Myer's voice off/

So a dude, pretending to be a woman, is the top scoring (winningest, whatever they called it) *female* winner in Jeopardy history.

That must make the actual real women winners proud.

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:
That must make the actual real women winners proud.

Good grief

Jeopardy is more a test of how widely-read and widely-traveled one is, coupled with how efficiently they can recall what they've read, seen, and heard. It's not a test of physical prowess. It's mostly not even really a test of intelligence, per se: IBM Watson: The inside story of how the Jeopardy-winning supercomputer was born, and what it wants to do next

I doubt any Real Women™ care, one way or the other.

While I think it is silly to congratulate Amy Schneider as a female winner, because this is a brainpower contest and not a physical one, it isn't as disturbing as giving medals to transgender swimmers or weightlifters.

I am sure there have been dozens and dozens of gay contestants on over the years. Now, gay people are much more free to be open, so now they mention it. I'll be glad when that doesn't have to be a characteristic gay people feel compelled to mention, but since being able to mention it at all is relatively new for them, I get it.

I don't watch much Jeopardy as the schedule it is on doesn't match mine, it has always been a game show I like. I like trivia and general knowledge quizzes like this.

Of course, the Babylon Bee satire site had a good zinger Here is the preview:

These contestants reflect yet another lowering of the quality of this show since the iconic host of decades passed. Far too many shows (The Voice, etc. in addition to Jeopardy) are making an obvious concerted effort to "spotlight" LBJQ#$%^ creatures. I refuse to watch.

quote:

Good grief

I don't care who wins. But to be lauded as the top 'female' contestant, when he is a man, is ludicrous.

Why not the third highest winner (or whatever it is), and disregard the gender or *identity* entirely?

We watched this show for years. After Alex passed, we found we would pick certain guest hosts to watch. We like Jennings but not Maya. She is terrible. Now we have a guy/girl who is put up against very weak challengers and we triumph hers wins. We haven't watched since she/he started winning. Para is right, the show died with Alex.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

Personally, had it not been covered, elsewhere, I'd never have known Amy was a transgender.

You can't be serious. You really can't. You didn't know she was transgender? I just don't believe that. First time I saw her on the show, before a word was spoken I looked at my wife and said, "That's a dude."

Why would some dude say he's a woman, and then have a girlfriend? Why bother?