'Jeopardy!' Champ Amy Schneider Doesn't Want to 'Judge' Ken Jennings

Jeopardy! premiered its 40th season on Sept. 11 despite the ongoing WGA writers' strike, and although the show is using recycled questions from past seasons (as opposed to new questions penned by non-WGA writers), not everyone with ties to the program is thrilled with its decision to forge ahead. One such person is Jeopardy! champ Amy Schneider, who won 40 consecutive games and holds the second-longest winning streak in the show's history, bested only by Ken Jennings.

Related: How Jeopardy! Season 40 Is Different

In July, Schneider took to X to say that she will "not be participating in any Jeopardy! productions that don’t use new clues written by their amazing, unionized writers under a fair, collectively bargained contract."

Now, she's expanding on those thoughts in an interview with Parade. "I just am a pretty pro-union type of person," she said in a recent call to discuss her upcoming memoir, In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life. "I was raised that way to some extent. I’m a Bay Area liberal. It’s sort of how we all are. I think that the writers are what make that show work. It’s a good format, they have been lucky with good hosts in Alex and Ken. But without the clues, that’s 80% of the game, and [the writers] do an incredible job, and they deserve to get paid."

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As for whether she's disappointed in Jennings for taking on hosting duties after Mayim Bialik stepped down in solidarity with striking writers, Schneider remained relatively diplomatic. "I don’t know everything that’s going on in his situation," she said. "I don’t want to judge him when I don’t know all the circumstances. I understand that everybody’s got their career pressure and everything else and that’s what he felt he needed to do." (Jennings was host of Jeopardy! for Schneider's entire run.)

Another high-profile Jeopardy! champ to criticize the return of the show is James Holzhauer, who knocked Schneider out of Jeopardy! Masters back in May.

Related: James Holzhauer Makes Dig at Upcoming Season of 'Celebrity Jeopardy!'

"Anybody that agrees with me I think is right, obviously," Schneider said of her one-time opponent's stance. "Like I say, that’s the decision I made and the decision that feels right to me, that kind of solidarity."

"The whole point of the strike is to make it impossible for products to get
made because the labor is what makes the products," she added. "Undermining that—I don’t love the concept of that because the point is to make the studios lose money so that they understand that they need the writers and actors."

Schneider's memoir is out Oct. 3, 2023.

Next, Find Out Who's Competing in 'Celebrity Jeopardy!' This Season