Julia Collins’ JEOPARDY! streak came to an end in an episode that aired today, when Brian Loughnane, an investment operations manager from Scituate, Mass., stopped her run at 20 games and $428,100. Collins is now number 2 on the all-time consecutive wins list; no other player aside from Ken Jennings (74 wins) has won more games than she has.
“There are no diminishing returns winning on JEOPARDY!, it just gets more exciting every time you win,” Collins said. “I’m delighted that preparation, confidence, and an itchy trigger finger aligned so well. I told Alex [Trebek] on one show that I was having the time of my life, and I meant it.”
Collins acknowledged that there are a number of factors that come into play in each game of JEOPARDY!, and that there wasn’t “any one thing” that caused her to lose her 21st game.
“I had a feeling my number was up when I was in second place going into Final Jeopardy!,” she said. “That hadn’t happened to me before. No excuses: I got outplayed that day. Losing isn’t fun, but I couldn’t have asked for a better experience being on JEOPARDY!.”
Collins’ $428,100 payout makes her the third-highest money winner on JEOPARDY! history (for regular-season, non-tournament play), and she will return for the JEOPARDY! Tournament of Champions next season.
About The Author
Editor-in-Chief/Entertainment Reporter
I knew early on that I wanted to take my place among the stars. One day, my mother saw me reading The Washington Post at a very young age. Who would have known that it would be the building blocks of my journey? Since that day, I dedicated my life to learn all that is learnable. I read everything from encyclopedias, to books, to dictionaries, to magazines. I’m also an avid consumer of television, with my favorite genre being game shows. If you’ve seen me on Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune, then you know that this interest has served me well!
My unique style of reporting began back in junior high school, when I started to chronicle the events that shaped my life. Whether it was the annual family vacation or the local science fiction convention, I shot numerous pictures and recorded my thoughts so I could truly appreciate the history. During my senior year at Friendly High, I wrote what was to be my first masterpiece, “Advanced Space Academy – A One Week Journey.” I sent the eleven-page article back to the U.S. Space Camp staff. The article was highly praised for being “one of the best written articles in the history of U.S. Space Camp.” From then on, I knew what I wanted to do for rest of my life — to be a reporter.
Since then, I have trained in Broadcast Journalism at Bowie State University (2008) in Bowie, MD earning a B.S. in Communications. I gained experience in news production and editing through field experiences with Bowie Community Media Corporation, Prince George’s Community Television, and Bowie State University Television. I also wrote scripts for a variety of quiz shows for over five years.
As a lifelong movie buff, I now see close to 100 films every year. I took this love of movies to the next step when I became a co-host for Eclipse Magazine TV in the fall of 2005. While at EMTV, I interviewed celebrities, worked red carpets, and attended a wide variety of movie screenings. In January 2009, I took a leap of faith and started my own entertainment news magazine, The Rogers Revue. Shortly afterward, my life-long journey of studying the silver screen and writing about what I learned finally earned me a place in the Washington Area Film Critics Association.
All of this has led me here, giving you the latest entertainment news for the DMV and the entire nation, and I am truly excited for whatever will come next.
