James Corson is at the moment a two-day champion on Jeopardy! He competed in opposition to Harvey Silikovitz, who garnered social media consideration for being a worldwide karaoke singer. He confronted off in opposition to two new contestants on Wednesday after beating Silikovitz in Tuesday’s recreation.
Corson, 39, advised The Frederick Information Put up, his native newspaper in Fredrick, Maryland, that being on the sport present was a “dream come true.” He first utilized for Jeopardy! 12 years in the past however by no means heard again. When Corson didn’t hear again straight away, his spouse, Holly, inspired him to maintain taking Jeopardy!‘s anytime take a look at, which incorporates 50 trivia questions, yearly. It is step one to making use of to the present and might solely be taken annually. Corson bought the decision to be on the present in June 2024 and needed to retake the take a look at over Zoom. Then, in December, he obtained one other name again confirming his choice, after which filmed his episodes in January. Holly and some of his mates have been there to cheer him on.
“It felt fairly superb, but in addition sort of a little bit bittersweet, as a result of I achieved my dream,” he advised the outlet. Corson has at all times been a fan of the present and watched it along with his household rising up. The sport present contestant stated that he has at all times been a fan of trivia and would play Trivial Pursuit and different video games along with his household.
Corson is a nuclear engineer for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Fee in Maryland and opened up about what classes he can be good at. “I’m a nuclear engineer, so if it’s something nuclear physics associated, I’m gonna destroy that, however in any other case, I’m fairly good at geography and historical past classes,” he stated.
To place his data to the take a look at, Corson joined an internet trivia league referred to as LearnedLeague. He advised the outlet that earlier Jeopardy! gamers James Holzhauer and Ken Jennings have additionally participated within the league. Jennings holds the document for many consecutive Jeopardy! video games received, whereas Holzhauer holds the document for many cash received in a single episode with $131,127.
“The one cool factor about LearnedLeague is it tracks all of your stats over time, so I can see my query proportion going up and up and up,” Corson advised the outlet. “It’s factor that Jeopardy! didn’t name me in 2012 or no matter as a result of I didn’t know practically as a lot again then.”
“One of many largest causes I’ve gotten significantly better at trivia is simply that I learn rather a lot, and I learn an excessive amount of to purchase all these books myself,” he shared. Corson makes use of his city’s public library to take out books on matters that he’s unfamiliar with. His spouse shared that he often takes out youngsters’s variations of books as a result of he can get the entire info he wants on a subject in 50 pages relatively than 300.
James and Holly had attended tapings of Wheel of Fortune and The Value is Proper up to now and stated that the Jeopardy! set was extra critical. “Within the viewers, you needed to be quiet,” Holly stated. “Don’t say a phrase, completely no pictures. Somebody tried to take an image [on their phone] after which they made them delete it after which go into their trash and delete it once more.”
Since being on the sport present, the couple nonetheless attends weekly trivia nights at a neighborhood brewery. Corson stated that he doesn’t win the entire time, particularly when the questions are geared towards popular culture. He advised the Frederick Information Put up that these classes are his spouse’s specialty.
See Corson compete in his third-straight recreation on Thursday, March 13, in opposition to two new opponents.
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