The librarian who toppled James Holzhauer on ‘Jeopardy!’ is a student of the game
On “Jeopardy!” Monday night, we learned what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. It turns out the librarian wins.
Emma Boettcher, a 27-year-old University of Chicago librarian with Triangle ties, appears to have been the perfect foil to take down James Holzhauer, the man who broke “Jeopardy!” Over 32 games, Holzhauer amassed more than $2.4 million in winnings, falling $58,000 short of Ken Jennings’s earnings, the all-time record holder during regular play.
But that streak ended Monday with Boettcher making some “Jeopardy!” and pop culture history.
In Boettcher, Holzhauer found someone who approached trivia with love and science and was a student of the game. She was an English major at Princeton University. While at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science, she wrote her master’s thesis on “Jeopardy!” questions, specifically what makes the hard ones hard and the easy ones easy.
Holzhauer, the reigning champion, became a “Jeopardy! legend, largely for the vast sums of cash he won every night. He alone holds the records for the top 10 largest winnings per episode in the show’s history, once winning $131,127 and eclipsing $100,000 five other times.
Boettcher led Holzhauer by $3,300 going into final Jeopardy Monday’s episode. All three contestants correctly answered the clue, but Holzhauer’s wager of $1,399 was uncharacteristically conservative, requiring a wrong answer from Boettcher to continue his streak.
But right on the money, and with a $20,201 wager that was practically Holzhauerian, the librarian prevailed and shocked the world.
She ended the night with $46,801. She returned Tuesday night, the first Holzhauer-free episode in more than a month and won again, despite not correctly answering the final Jeopardy question. Thanks to a wager of zero dollars, Boettcher ended the night with $24,600, bringing her two-day total to $71,401.
“Jeopardy!” films its episodes in blocks and airs them daily months later. The New York Times reports that the episode taped March 12.
In an interview with The Chicago Tribune, Boettcher said she was unaware at the time that Holzhauer was on a 32-day winning streak until taping began.
“It’s been remarkable as a fan to have watched his run,” she told The Tribune. “And for me, it would have been an honor to have played him regardless of how the game had turned out.”
North Carolina connection
Boettcher lived in the Triangle not too long ago, earning a master’s degree of Information Science in 2016, according to her LinkedIn page. She was an intern at Duke University Libraries and was a library account manager at UNC, according to her LinkedIn page.
She also worked part-time at the Orange County Library’s Hillsborough branch. Nancy Crews, her supervisor at the library, commended Boettcher’s work ethic. One Saturday, Boettcher was having car problems and couldn’t drive it, Crews said.
“Most part-time folks, if they’re having car trouble will just call in and say they can’t make it,” Crews said. “Emma called an Uber. She was really dedicated and didn’t want to miss work, so she called an Uber to take her from Carrboro to Hillsborough.”
Crews said she watched Boettcher on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning as she made her victory tour.
“She was exactly the same,” Crews said. “(While in Orange County) she was very kind-hearted and genuinely caring. She was quiet and shy but had a great work ethic.”
At this point there’s no telling how long Boettcher will reign as champ, but she told the Tribune that she will use her winnings will pay off her student debt and donated to the UNC School of Information and Library Science.
“I gained so much from that experience academically, and I think this would be a nice way to bring that full-circle,” Boettcher told the Tribune.
Stephanie Haas was Boettcher’s thesis adviser at UNC and said appearing on the game show appeared to be a longtime goal of hers. While the paper dealt with the nature of the show’s trivia questions, Haas said Boettcher sought deeper truths.
“She investigated a real question: how we say things can be manipulated to influence how someone understands or interprets them,” Haas wrote in an email to The News & Observer. “That can be fun in a game, but more serious in other settings, for example to mislead people.”
Gary Marchionini, dean of UNC’s School of Information and Library Science, told The News & Observer Tuesday that Boettcher’s win and overnight fame has given the school a jolt of publicity. Marchionini said “Jeopardy!” is on everyone’s mind.
“I’ve been telling people she’s the most famous librarian in the country,” said Marchionini, reached by phone Tuesday at a conference. “It makes us very proud...We’re excited to see her do so well and pleased with the notoriety (for the school) that comes form that.”
Boettcher is not the first SILS graduate to appear on “Jeopardy!,” Marchionini points out. In 2016, Margaret Miles, a 1983 graduate, was a one-time champion. The dean suggests there’s no coincidence.
“We tend to get a lot of students from the humanities and social sciences,” he said. “They’re information professionals. They’re smart and thoughtful.”
Marchionini missed Boettcher’s first game, but is hoping it won’t be her last.
“We’re hoping we see her on there for a long time,” he said.
This story was originally published June 4, 2019 at 3:56 PM with the headline "The librarian who toppled James Holzhauer on ‘Jeopardy!’ is a student of the game."
