“I Know What I Know”: New Jeopardy! Champion Jim Carpenter Reveals Shocking Way He Prepared For Show

The newest Jeopardy! champion, Jim Carpenter, won on the May 23 episode, besting three-day champion Brendan Liaw, and he now reveals the shocking way that he prepared for the show. Jim, a retired music professor and conductor from Charlotte, Vermont, won $25,601 in his first game. He emerged victorious over his Jeopardy! competitors, Brendan, who made a brutal Daily Double error and didn’t make it to Final Jeopardy! because of a negative score, and David Crockett, who placed second.

The newest Jeopardy! champion, Jim Carpenter, won on the May 23 episode, besting three-day champion Brendan Liaw, and he now reveals the shocking way that he prepared for the show.

In an interview with NBC5, Jim revealed that, unlike other Jeopardy! contestants, he isn’t a trivia buff, but, instead, he relied on his prior knowledge to prepare for the game. He shared, “I haven’t really done a lot of trivia. There was a fairly short time between getting the call and when I had to be out there for the taping. So at that point, I just decided I know what I know.”

Jim added that his many years of puzzle-solving and reading helped him to build the knowledge base that he needed in order to compete in Jeopardy!. He explained, “I think probably one of the things that helped the most in terms of getting through the process was decades of doing things like New York Times crossword puzzles, and just reading in a lot of different subjects, a lot of different areas.” Jim added that, because he’s a retired professor and conductor, his experience in front of crowds and with students helped him with Jeopardy! as well.

Jim also shared that he grew up watching Jeopardy! with his father, who was a big fan of the show. He said, “My father was a particular devotee of the show, so we would watch together and try to beat each other to the right answers.” He’d taken the Jeopardy! Anytime Test online for years, but, last year, he got a message inviting him to do a quiz on Zoom. After that, Jim participated in a mock game, and then he finally received an invitation to appear on Jeopardy!.

Jim admitted, “It was a little surreal. I actually looked at my phone, and it was a California number that I didn’t recognize, and I said, ‘Well, maybe this is spam from California.’ My wife said to me, ‘That might be Jeopardy!, why don’t you answer it?'” The rest is history.

I haven’t really done a lot of trivia. There was a fairly short time between getting the call and when I had to be out there for the taping. So at that point, I just decided I know what I know.

What Jim Carpenter’s Reliance On Prior Knowledge Means For His Jeopardy! Future

Jim Is Confident That He Knows Enough To Keep Winning

Jim’s Jeopardy! preparation style means that he believes that he knows enough to keep winning games, which is a testament to his confidence in himself. The fact that he didn’t try to cram tons of trivia into his mind before leaving for the show proves that he has a strong enough knowledge base to succeed on the show on his own. Jim is an intelligent person, who was a professor, and spent years doing puzzles and reading about a variety of subjects. This makes him the perfect Jeopardy! contestant.

Our Take On Jim Carpenter’s Jeopardy! Strategy

Jim Could Be A Multi-Game Champion

Jim was an exciting Jeopardy! contestant to watch. He won $1,000 in the first Daily Double of the game, and later entered Final Jeopardy! with $13,400 and David with $12,800. Brendan was ineligible to play in the final round because of his negative score. Jim answered the Final Jeopardy! question correctly, which was, “Eponymously named and in use for more than 1,600 years, it was based in part on concepts from the Greek mathematician Sosignes.” Jim answered correctly with “What is the Julian calendar?,” while David answered incorrectly. Jim won the game with $25,601 over David’s $8,801.

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With his broad knowledge base and poise, Jim has the potential to become a multi-game Jeopardy! champion. With five wins, he’ll automatically qualify for the Tournament of Champions, but, with his relatively large one-day payday, he could definitely turn up again in the Champions Wildcard, even if he doesn’t win another game. It’s shocking and amazing that he’ll do it not by being a trivia buff, but based on the knowledge he’s accumulated over the years. Hopefully, Jim will continue to win Jeopardy! games and become another legendary champion.