--- description: Here's what to know about the librarian who dethroned the record-breaking champ on Monday night's episode. title: Meet the Strategic Librarian Who Dethroned 'Jeopardy!' Champ James Holzhauer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dd6dc6a93f95a0c/69894ac022fb858c6ae28599/emma-boettcher-jeopardy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Television](/tag/television/) ## Television Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Who Is Emma Boettcher? Meet the Strategic Librarian Who Dethroned _Jeopardy!_ Champ James Holzhauer by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jun 4, 2019 6:10 PM CUT  Emma Boettcher, 27, a University of Chicago librarian, beat reigning champ James Holzhauer on 'Jeopardy!' Monday evening before he could surpass Ken Jennings' $2.52 million record. Emma Boettcher, 27, a University of Chicago librarian, beat reigning champ James Holzhauer on 'Jeopardy!' Monday evening before he could surpass Ken Jennings' $2.52 million record.Jeopardy Productions, Inc. by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jun 4, 2019 6:10 PM CUT Anyone following [James Holzhauer’s historic _Jeopardy!_](https://time.com/5589952/jeopardy-james-holzhauer-records/ "undefined") run was in for a shock on Monday night, when the record-setting professional gambler was dethroned after he lost in the Final Jeopardy round, bringing his acclaimed 32-game streak to an end. The new champion? Emma Boettcher, 27, a University of Chicago librarian, who [beat Holzhauer](https://time.com/5600018/jeopardy-james-holzhauer-leaked-footage/ "undefined") before he could break the $2.52 million record set on _Jeopardy!_ by Ken Jennings during his legendary streak in 2004. During the game, which aired Monday, Boettcher landed two Daily Doubles in the second round, and led Holzhauer by $3,200 before they went into Final Jeopardy, to answer the clue: “The line ‘A great reckoning in a little room’ in _As You Like It_ is usually taken to refer to this author’s premature death.” Both contestants gave the correct response: “Who is Marlowe.” Bottecher wagered $20,201, enough to win a total of $46,801 — and enough to knock down Holzhauer, who won a total of $24,799 after an [uncharacteristically low bet](https://time.com/5600227/james-holzhauer-final-jeopardy-wager/ "undefined") of $1,399. Beyond winning on the show itself, Boettcher’s life has been shaped by _Jeopardy!_ Her [capstone](https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/record/uuid:38790152-cc19-491c-b2ed-4551ce777232 "undefined") for her master’s degree in information science at the University of North Carolina used _Jeopardy!_ clues to assess how wording and length in trivia questions could impact their difficulty. “The question I started out with was, “How do people perceive what’s difficult, and how can we train a computer to make those same types of predictions?” Boettcher [told _Vulture_](https://www.vulture.com/2019/06/jeopardy-emma-boettcher-james-holzhauer-defeat-interview.html "undefined"). “The _Jeopardy!_ board values its clues going from top to bottom. I was parsing the text of those clues for length, the words used in each, the syntax, and whether or not they linked out to audiovisual materials.” Boettcher’s love for trivia began long before she completed her master’s paper in 2016\. The Philadelphia-area native, who now lives in Chicago, auditioned for _Jeopardy!_ four times before being called in after a 2017 audition, [the Philadelphia _Inquirer_ reports](https://www.inquirer.com/entertainment/tv/jeopardy-new-champ-emma-boettcher-james-holzhauer-20190603.html "undefined"). As a student at Princeton University, she watched the quiz show and kept a close eye on which clues she answered right, and which ones she got wrong. By the time she made it to _Jeopardy!_, Boettcher was aware of her weak spots, she told the _Inquirer_. Because _Jeopardy!_ is filmed months before the episodes actually air, Boettcher did not know she was going up against a contestant who would gain national attention for his winning streak until she arrived to tape her episode on March 12 — before any episodes that featured Holzhauer had aired. “Somewhere in the course of the morning a contestant coordinator pointed out James and said, ‘Here’s our returning champion, he’s won 29 games, and he’s won $2 million, but anyway, here’s more paperwork for you,'” she told _Vulture_. “There’s a lot of information coming at you quickly, and that was one data point I had to deal with.” She added: “My first reaction was that I honestly didn’t think it was a real number. I thought they were playing a joke on us.” Despite the surreality of the situation — competing on a beloved game show against a remarkable champion — Boettcher stuck to her strategy, she told _Vulture_. “I pretty much did what I planned to do when I came in, to be honest, which was to jump around the board a little bit so the higher-value clues were taken care of first … I knew jumping around the board was a tried and true success on the show.” The entire experience was a dream come true on many levels, she said. “It’s an amazing feeling, truly. Just being on _Jeopardy!_ was one dream for me. And then to be on and hold my own was another dream,” Boettcher told the _Inquirer_. “And then to be on and hold my own and then win was just way beyond anything I ever expected.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5600690/emma-boettcher-jeopardy-james-holzhauer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5600690/emma-boettcher-jeopardy-james-holzhauer/"},"headline":"Who Is Emma Boettcher? Meet the Strategic Librarian Who Dethroned Jeopardy! 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