James Holzhauer's Jeopardy winning streak ended by University of Chicago librarian Emma Boettcher

ByEric Horng WLS logo
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Jeopardy James faces off against U of Chicago librarian and loses
Jeopardy champion James Holzhauer faced off against a librarian from the University of Chicago Monday. She brought his streak to an end.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- Jeopardy champion James Holzhauer faced off against a librarian from the University of Chicago Monday.

Holzhauer's amazing streak ended at 33 games, and also short of the all-time Jeopardy earnings leader, Ken Jennings, by $58,000. He was bested by Emma Boettcher, a librarian at the University of Chicago.

Holzhauer high-fived Boettcher after the game.

"One thing that makes me really happy is that I didn't beat myself," Holzhauer said after the show. "I lost to an elite player playing a near-perfect game."

At a watch party in west suburban Naperville, though, his family remained proud of him.

"If he could have lost to anyone, I know he would have wanted to lose to a Chicagoan," said Ian Holzhauer, James' brother. "Emma played a great game. What a great player. I hope that she goes on and wins 33 games."

Residents of Holzhauer's hometown were also proud of their local champ.

"We're so proud of Jeopardy James. Yes, we wanted him to beat the record, but we're so proud of how he did," said Paula Miller, Naperville resident.

So who is Emma Boettcher, besides being a Jeopardy giant killer? ABC7 has learned she's 27 years old and works as a User Experience Resident Librarian at the University of Chicago. She attended the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, and has a Master of Science in Information Science.

"To say that I've won a game of Jeopardy, no matter who against, is just incredible," Boettcher said.

While she was in school, Boettcher wrote a paper on predicting the difficulty of trivia questions and used Jeopardy clues as part of the study.

All-time regular season record holder Ken Jennings tweeted about Holzhauer's defeat Monday evening.

It is, however, very likely Holzhauer and Jennings could meet in a Tournament of Champions.