27 year-old Emma Boettcher has defeated reigning “Jeopardy” champion James Holzhauer after his historic run on the game show.
A resident of Chicago, Boettcher works for the University of Chicago as a user experience resident librarian. Boettcher attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she worked as a library account manager. She received her master’s degree in library sciences in 2016, and her paper — “Predicting the Difficulty of Trivia Questions Using Text Features” — focused on the game of “Jeopardy” itself.
Meredith Hale & @emma_boettcher presented 2016 Dean's Achievement Award.
— UNC SILS (@uncsils) May 8, 2016
In addition, Boettcher worked for the Orange County Public Library.
She used to work here at the Orange County Public Library in NC. We knew her when! @OCNCGOV #ocnclibrary #Orangecountylib https://t.co/1U36NFih4F
— OCNC Public Library (@OCPLibraries) June 3, 2019
Boettcher’s victory on the show took the nation by surprise. Holzhauer’s winning streak on “Jeopardy” was among the highest-grossing in the show’s history, but he ultimately finished $58,484 shy of the mark set by Ken Jennings in 2004.
Among those surprised was show host Alex Trebek, who exclaimed, “What a game! Oh my gosh!”
Holzhauer took the loss in stride and walked over to give Boettcher a high-five following her win.
Featured image via Libbie Hough, Orange County Public Library
Alright alright… love the connection the new champ has to UNC, BUT…. did she really win?? I’m skeptical about James losing, lots of folks feel like he did it on purpose…