JEOPARDY! Kevin Bell, who lost to now-popular winner Hannah Wilson, has broken his silence.
Amy Schneider, the champion of Tournament of Champions 2022, was impressed by Hannah’s recent victory over Kevin, also known as “Whisky Ginger” in drag.
Amy tweeted: “Huge congratulations to Hannah Wilson!
“Welcome to the Guild of Jeopardy Champion Trans Women. One of us will be in contact shortly to explain the secret handshake and so forth.”
Kevin re-shared Amy’s congratulatory tweet and added: “Having another exceptional trans woman beat me was solace in my loss.
“#TeamQueer continues its domination! Go, Hannah! (And good luck in Masters, Amy!).”
Hannah then stated on an internet forum, “Yeah, I’m trans! Amy was serving as my publicity representative at the time.”
Jeopardy! also backed the game show contestant. Mattea Roach, 24, is a Masters participant.
Mattea retaliated on social media against everyone who was attempting to put Hannah down.
She wrote: “Lots of people hating from outside the club…”
The new Jeopardy! contestant is a transgender woman and data scientist from Chicago, Illinois.
In the last two games, the 18th-ranked crossword puzzle solver in the US found five of six daily doubles and only missed three clues.
Hannah’s $71,200 in two games is the season’s second-highest two-game total.
Hannah defeated Kevin, a trail planner from Silver Spring, Maryland, and Dan Czekalski, a project manager from Columbia, South Carolina, on May 3rd.
Hannah outplayed Kevin, who had a huge lead with $22,800 and was left in the dust with $6,000.
Hannah won a hard-fought struggle on May 5th against Brian Alzua, a biocompatibility scientist from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Ashwin Phadnis, an attorney from Hillsdale, New Jersey.
Despite missing a seemingly easy Betty White hint and stumbling on a Daily Double question, the returning winner ended up with the season’s second-highest two-day total.
Mayim Bialik, 47, has also taken over as co-host for the first time in ten months, replacing Ken Jennings, 48.
Meanwhile, people are eager to see if Hannah Wilson can surpass Ken’s legendary record on the game show.
“It’ll be interesting if Hannah survives long enough to meet Ben Chan on May 15th,” one admirer said on Facebook.
Ken will host the three-week-long $500K Jeopardy! Masters competition beginning May 8th in primetime on ABC.
He won’t be directing regular episodes until September of next year.
