The answer is in: city librarian wins Jeopardy!

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This article was published 20/04/2023 (953 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg Jeopardy! champion.

Well, if you answered “Who is Emma Hill Kepron?” you have won.

Kepron, whose day job is associate dean at the University of Winnipeg library, was on Thursday’s edition of the long-running game show and, after the buzzers were put down a final time, she had won a cool US$11,400.

“It was all such a blur,” Kepron said after the show aired in Manitoba Thursday afternoon. The episode was taped in Los Angeles in February.

“I wasn’t keeping an eye too much on the score, but I was aware I wasn’t doing super well for the whole game. If I looked at the score too much, I would have become distracted.”

But Kepron, who was leading by $200 at the end of the first game, with a score of $6,600, after correctly answering a music question “Who is Prince?”, soon found herself behind again in the second game, Double Jeopardy.

After a few correct answers about the late broadcaster Barbara Walters, she pulled into second place, with only Final Jeopardy to come.

The final question involved the term coined by author Neal Stephenson, in his 1994 novel Snow Crash, with part of it now used by a company. None of the three contestants came up with Meta from Stephenson’s word metaverse.

When the dust settled, and the losing bids were subtracted from each contestant’s score, Kepron came out ahead.

“During my audition, when I was asked what I would do with the money if I won, I said I would put it towards a trip to Antarctica,” she said. “But, in reality, it will probably go to landscaping my backyard.

“Game show winnings are tax-free in Canada. I checked.”

Earlier, Kepron said both she and her husband Chris had been sworn to secrecy about how she did on the game show, but was able to say “I just say I did not embarrass myself.”

Kepron, who has been a fan and avid watcher of the game show since she was a teenager, said her journey to become Jeopardy! champion began before the pandemic when she took a pre-test and was invited to Chicago to participate in live auditions.

“I never got a call back,” she said.

Kepron decided to try again last year. Because of the pandemic, instead of holding live auditions, Jeopardy! has pivoted to doing tryouts via Zoom calls.

“You’re on a call with six or nine other people,” she said. “They give you a test to make sure you are legit. They are also trying to see how engaging you are on it.”

This time, Kepron received the call to travel to Los Angeles and, in February she was in front of a studio audience vying to become the latest champ.

As for her experience on the live show, Kepron said it was different than watching at home.

“I’m not on my couch and in my sweat pants,” she said laughing.

“It went by so fast. I had to remind myself to do the phrasing properly. At home you don’t do the ‘what is and who is.’

“There were, ‘Oh, I know that, but they rang in first.’ Because only the person who gets it can answer the double jeopardy question, I was thinking, ‘They don’t know it, but I do. Oh shoot.’”

Kepron said her interaction with host Ken Jennings, who is a former Jeopardy champ, was brief.

“You didn’t get much time to interact with him other than during game play and getting a picture with him,” she said.

“They shoot five episodes per day. You are in a cohort and you watch an episode and then they pull your name and call you up for the next episode. They’ve been doing it for so long it is a well-oiled machine. They take all of the anxiety out of it.

“I had so much fun. It was a blast.”

As for how Kepron did in Friday’s show, both she and her husband are still sworn to secrecy.

“I will talk to you (Friday).”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca