‘Jeopardy! Masters’ Episode 2: Amy Schneider drops to fifth overall

Credit: Casey Durkin/Sony Pictures Television

Credit: Casey Durkin/Sony Pictures Television

On Tuesday’s episode of “Jeopardy! Masters,” Dayton native Amy Schneider finished second during the first game but ranks fifth overall.

Schneider, a writer from Oakland, California, faced Sam Buttrey, an associate professor of operations research at the Naval Postgraduate School from Pacific Grove, California, and Mattea Roach, a writer and podcaster from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Hosted by Ken Jennings and structured in the style of a Champions League, “Jeopardy! Masters” features six super champs: Matt Amodio, Buttrey, Andrew He, James Holzhauer, Roach and Schneider. Buttrey and He memorably competed against Schneider in the 2022 Tournament of Champions.

“Jeopardy! Masters” consists of 10 one-hour episodes featuring two games among different combinations of the six contestants. After each game, match points are awarded: 3 for finishing first, 1 for finishing second and 0 for finishing third. Only the top three with the highest match point total will advance to the final, resulting in a champion who will win a grand prize of $500,000.

Credit: Sean Black

Credit: Sean Black

In the Jeopardy! round, Schneider found the Daily Double in the category Play: The Game, wagered a true Daily Double, correctly answered and raised her score to 4,800. At the end of the round, she led with 6,000 points followed by Buttrey with 4,000 and Roach with 2,800.

However, situations shifted dramatically in Double Jeopardy! when Buttrey and Roach found the Daily Doubles, wagered true Daily Doubles and correctly answered. At the end of the round, Buttrey took the lead with 17,600 points followed by Roach with 16,400 and Schneider with 11,200.

The Final Jeopardy! clue in the category of 21st Century Authors:

“Once a journalist himself, he began his first novel with his hero being fined 150,000 kronor for aggravated libel.”

Schneider, wagering 6,500, correctly answered Stieg Larsson (”The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), bringing her total to 17,700 points. Roach, wagering 6,001, also answered Larsson, finishing with 22,401. Buttrey incorrectly answered Johannson Stiegler, sinking his score to 2,399. The first game of Tuesday’s match ended with Roach at 3 points followed by Schneider with 1 and Buttrey with 0.

During the interview segment, Schneider said she’s currently working on her memoir.

“(It’s) about my life and about sort of curiosity of learning,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun. I’m excited to tell more of my story than I can tell in these 15 second chunks on ‘Jeopardy!’”

The leaderboard at the end of the second episode: First: He (4); Second: Holzhauer (3); Third: Roach (3); Fourth: Amodio (3); Fifth: Schneider (2); and Sixth: Buttrey (1). The ranking takes into account the number of correct responses.

“Jeopardy! Masters” returns Wednesday at 8 p.m. on ABC. The show will also stream on Hulu.

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