University of Chicago librarian Emma Boettcher returns to 'Jeopardy!' for Tournament of Champions
A librarian from the University of Chicago who beat "Jeopardy!" powerhouse James Holzhauer in June returned to the game show on Thursday.
Emma Boettcher starred on the Tournament of Champions Thursday, and she won the round!
But when Boettcher first faced off against "Jeopardy!" champion James Holzhauer over the summer, her friends expressed concern.
"When they found out I was going to be on the show, they were worried for me," Boettcher said. "Didn't know how that was going to work out."
The University of Chicago librarian had been tracking her scores, playing at home for five years. Although her winning streak was short-lived after beating the 32-day champion, she came back swinging on Thursday on the Tournament of Champions.
Boettcher, an English major at Princeton University, had written her thesis for her master's degree on predicting the difficulty of trivia questions using "Jeopardy!" clues. But during the entire experience playing, Boettcher said what she was most impressed by was the host, Alex Trebek, who had announced just before taping the tournament that he was facing a setback in his battle against pancreatic cancer.
"I was so impressed on the show how present he was in the game, being the host. When the game paused, he would take questions from the audience, telling jokes," Boettcher said. "Had I not known beforehand, I would not have known anything was wrong."
Depending on how the contestants line up for the next round, "Jeopardy!" fans could potentially see a rematch between Boettcher and James Holzhauer in the semi-finals next week.
"Jeopardy!" airs weekdays at 3:30 p.m., right before ABC7's newscast.
