She's Won More Jeopardy Games Than Any Other Female Contestant. Who is Julia Collins?
UPDATE: According to Jeopardy's Facebook page, Julia Collins had her 12th victory on the show this week and continues to compete for more.
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How do you become Jeopardy’s first female 10-time champion?
For Julia Collins, the strategy is simple: "Be the first one to ring in and answer the question correctly ... I try to just keep control of the game board."
But it takes more than buzzer speed to keep winning match after match.
On "New Day" Monday, this former art history major credited her love of reading – everything from US Weekly to CNN – and a well-trained memory, for her success.
"I think I'm lucky to have a good memory, and I think I've trained that part of my brain to work as well as possible," she said.
Collins, who has her masters in supply chain management but is currently between jobs, has won $220,610 on the show.
She is the longest-running female champion in the show’s history, and is a couple of thousand dollars away from cracking its list of top five money winners.
If she succeeds, she'll become the highest grossing female contestant in Jeopardy history.
Here's a look at the current top five highest grossing Jeopardy contestants.
Source: List of Jeopardy Winners/Totals
At $2,520,700 in winnings, Ken Jennings is the highest grossing Jeopardy contestant of all time.
He's also the record holder for concurrent wins with an unprecedented 74-game streak in 2004.
While Collins said her playing has shown "I fall in the ranks of people who are really great at this no matter what their gender," she's proud to set a new bar for women.
"I'm a big proponent of women being the best that they can be," she said. "It's exciting to have my own little, tiny, tiny place in that."
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congratulations to Julia , I simply love the show !! she seems to be calm , and enjoying the show .
good luck keep it going !!
Sincerely
Bunny
It's a joke, alright. It took them 15 episodes to finally put two men against her and one was a complete knucklehead (finished in the red and failed to make final jeopardy) and the other was only average at best. Believe me, I’ve counted; she’s beaten 17 females and only 13 males in her 15-day run, and males outnumber females three to one in the second round tryouts (I've made two of those and, again, I counted). Which tells me Jeopardy has become a complete affirmative action entity like almost everything else you see on television (with the exception on sports and only because athletics usually favor minorities). I’ve been watching this show almost religiously for 30+ years and I’ve noticed a disturbing PC trend in the last 5-7 yrs: when a non-white male wins they throw virtually every knucklehead they can against him/her to ensure said NWM champion remains there. They never want to see another Ken Jennings. But a Julia Collins – bring her on!
I agree with Joe. I regard myself as a "feminist", but this woman's opponents have all been lackluster. I keep waiting for some worthy opponents.
This lady is a puppet for Jeopardy after the farce Chu displayed from his loss....Her questions are lackluster and trivial; her opponents are average joes...this is a joke. Jeopardy is appealing to the feminists now lol
It could have been phrased better, but we both know what the author meant: highest winnings for original appearance, excluding tournaments. I guess some things are better as they are. Ken won 74 straight games, but no one knew how long Brad would have lasted if he had been allowed to stay beyond 5 wins. 74 is still a legendary streak, and that's why Ken will always be the most famous contestant of all time. Hats off to Brad though, he's beaten Ken twice in the best of best tournaments. Hope we'll see more Ken vs Brad in the future.
Fact check: Brad Rutter is the highest grossing contestant of all time, not Ken Jennings. The chart you reference looks like it's only references original appearances, but that's misleading.