'Jeopardy!' contestant Amy Schneider ties third-place record for consecutive wins

Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Jeopardy! contestant Amy Schneider won her 32nd straight game on Thursday night, leaving her tied for third among contestants for consecutive wins in the show's history.

The win ties Schneider with James Holzhauer on the consecutive wins list and makes her the first transgender Jeopardy! contestant to qualify for the Tournament of Champions.

Ken Jennings holds the all-time consecutive wins record with a streak of 74 games, and Matt Amodio is second with a streak of 38.

Since her run began on Nov. 17, Schneider has won a total of $1,101,600 -- including $32,800 on Thursday night -- making her the highest-earning female contestant in Jeopardy! history and is $417,001 away from surpassing Amodio's third-place earnings record.

Schneider has successfully buzzed in 65% of the time throughout her run and answered 95% of her questions correctly, including successfully buzzing in 60% of the time and answering 94% of her questions correctly on Thursday, according to tracking by Jeopardy!

She answered all three Daily Double questions correctly on Thursday night and entered Final Jeopardy with $28,800, more than twice her second-place opponent with $11,200, before gaining an additional $4,000 with her correct answer about "The words of Victor Hugo."

Schneider's streak comes on the heels of Amodio's run in October. Since Jennings' streak in 2004, half of all winning streaks of 10 games or more have taken place in the past five years -- with a quarter of those occurring in the past year.

Andy Saunders, creator of the website "thejeopardyfan.com," told the CBC that he believes contestants are "absolutely getting better," but added additional preparation time due to the COVID-19 pandemic may also be contributing to the streaks.

"There have been a few times now where, over the last couple of years, contestants have been called to be on the show but because of changes in COVID protocols or other issues, those contestants have had to be rescheduled and have been given more time to prepare," he said, noting both Schneider and Amodio benefitted from such extensions.