'Holy moly!' Pittsburgh woman's Jeopardy! win streak continues; tops $79,000
A Pittsburgh homemaker is a Jeopardy! winning machine, cruising to her fourth consecutive victory as a contestant on Friday’s show.
Margaret Shelton, of the city’s East End, won for the fourth consecutive game on Friday. She earned another $21,500 to bring her total winnings to $79,700.
Shelton had to stage a come-from-behind rally on Wednesday and Thursday to capture victory in Final Jeopardy!.
But there was no such drama Friday. Going into the final round, Shelton had amassed $24,000, which was $18,400 more than her nearest competitor, a woman from Philadelphia.
Unlike the two previous shows, Shelton did not give the correct question to the Final Jeopardy! answer, which was about a character in a book by Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. Neither did her competitors.
Shelter took a commanding lead in the Jeopardy! portion of the show when she bet all of her $7,600 winnings as of that point on a Daily Double category about King Arthur’s legend. She answered correctly, giving her $15,200.
She opened the contest by cleaning up in the “History” category and was never seriously challenged.
“Not bad for a couple of hours work,” Shelton was heard saying after the contest and captured on a video available on jeopardy.com/overheard. Her winning streak made her “a winner, for like, the first time in my whole life.” She mixed in “Holy Moly!” twice to show her amazement.
When Jennings asked her what she planned to do with her winnings, she had a one-word answer: “Jewelry.”
While Shelton was daring in bidding on the Daily Double on Friday, she admitted to host Ken Jennings, in a discussion on the March 2 show, of being a little scared when getting behind the contestant’s podium.
She quipped that, “It’s like getting married. You want to do it, but you’re scared, you know.”
Jennings was quick with a retort, telling her that, “It’s a much shorter commitment.”
Shelton grew up in Mississippi and some of that Southern accent could be detected Friday. She had previously said she and her husband had moved around before coming to Pittsburgh.
Viewers will get to see if Shelton adds to her Jeopardy! winnings on Monday at 7 p.m. on WPXI, which is Pittsburgh’s NBC affiliate.
Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.
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