Sam Deutsch is the USC Junior who was recently crowned Jeopardy! College Champion.
But how did this Trojan go from lecture hall to trivia champion?
It started with an online test, where thousands of college students apply to compete on the Jeopardy! stage. The pool then shrunk again, as a few hundred of those applicants were selected for in-person auditions.
Eventually Deutsch was selected to be one of the 15 who would go on to compete in the show, and then went on to win the championship.
Deutsch looked to past episodes to help him prepare for the show. While specific questions are never repeated, he knew topics like Shakespeare, geography, and U.S. history are likely to come up.
"A lot of it is completely random and you have to try to expand and read and research as much stuff as you can, just so you figure you're prepared for whatever does happen to come up," says Deutsch.
The lag between filming and when the show aired on TV was very disconcerting for Deutsch. "Watching the games, there were definitely questions that I didn't even remember I answered."
Not being able to tell his friends, he felt like he had to process the win twice: once in the initial moment, and again when everyone started congratulating him.
Deutsch plans to save and invest most of his winnings in going to law school, but he's excited about being able to donate some of it as well."It's nice to be able to have that type of money now because as a college student, donating money is usually the last thing on your mind because you're not in that financial [place.]"
Deutsch says "It's nice to know that money is not something that I'm going to have to worry about, at least temporarily."
Reach staff reporter Ashley Velazquez here.
Annenberg Media