‘Jeopardy!’ Champion Brendan Liaw Talks Intense Prep for Show & What’s Next
Christopher Willard/Sony
Brendan Liaw went viral when he listed his occupation as “stay-at-home son.” Now, the three-day Jeopardy! champion opened up about his studying habits for the game show and what’s next for him after winning the average yearly salary for most people in three episodes.
He asked host Ken Jennings to introduce him at the beginning of every episode as a “recent grad and stay-at-home son.” “I figured even if I lost my first game, at least I could make people laugh,” told The Wall Street Journal just days after his run ended. “It sounds better than ‘unemployed.’ It’s tough times right now, so let’s try and get some laughter out there.”
Liaw, who has a master’s degree in political science, went home with a total of $59,398 in three episodes. He was defeated by Jim Carpenter, a retired music professor, from Charlotte, Vermont, on Friday, May 23. The 27-year-old still lives with his parents and currently has no job after finishing school, but says that law school is in his future.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with all this Jeopardy! stuff and newfound publicity. If something better comes along, I’m not opposed to shelving law school for a bit. In the long run, government work or politics. I wrote my master’s thesis on the House of Representatives, and I really want to work on the Hill. Working in the Senate as a staffer would be my dream job, basically,” he told the outlet.
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“My career doesn’t really define me, and it should just be a thing where I’m OK with what I do and make enough to pay the bills,” he added.
Since he doesn’t have a job, and claimed he has “all the time” in the world, Liaw’s studying prep leading up to his episodes was pretty intense. He shared that he practiced with a fake buzzer as he stood in his living room in a suit watching five Jeopardy! episodes per day for a month. “I was doing cardio every day, getting on the stationary bike, and watching an episode of Jeopardy! to get my heart rate up,” he said.
This helped him stimulate the nerves of being on the game show. “But no matter how much you prepare, walking onto the stage and having all the lights and cameras and Jennings and an audience—there’s no way to recreate that,” The Vancouver native told The WSJ.
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