Q&A: Adriana Harmeyer, WL’s ‘Jeopardy’ champ, talks Tournament of Champions

Last year, the Purdue archivist racked up 15 wins, making her a ‘Jeopardy’ super champ. The show’s Tournament of Champions – starting Monday – was a whole different experience, she says

Adriana Harmeyer, after her first victory on ‘Jeopardy’ in May 2024.

Adriana Harmeyer, a Purdue archivist who went on a 15-win tear on “Jeopardy” in spring 2024, will be back on the air during the show’s Tournament of Champions, which kicks off Monday evening.

Harmeyer’s three-week stretch last year, starting in May and running into June, positioned her as one of the show’s “super champions” and atop “Jeopardy’s” leaderboard in wins and in winnings, with $349,500. That total was good for No. 13 on the all-time leaderboard of money won during regular season play on “Jeopardy.”

The show’s Tournament of Champions brings the top winners from the past season, with 18 contestants competing in six quarterfinal rounds. Harmeyer, along with the second and third winningest contestants in the past season, are scheduled appear starting Feb. 4, after earning byes. (Here’s a bracket for the tournament.)

On Monday, Harmeyer – who isn’t allowed to reveal the results – said she was ready to watch to tournament play out on TV with everyone else.

Question: How have things been going?

Adriana Harmeyer: You know, it gets a little weirder as we get closer to “Jeopardy” time. But, I can’t complain.

Question: Explain “weirder.”

Adriana Harmeyer: Just getting more questions from people coming up and knowing that there's more promos going out and that it's getting to be almost time for me to be back on the show.

Question: How did it feel going back?

Adriana Harmeyer: It was pretty great. I got to spend months looking forward to it and thinking about it, preparing for it. So, it was really fun to get to finally do that and to be there with all these other great “Jeopardy” players.

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Question: Everybody there at the Tournament of Champions was a winner. Did that change the vibe at all while you were there this time compared to your first run?

Adriana Harmeyer: It was a completely different experience from the first time I was there, because we'd all been there before. We'd played before. We'd had a chance to watch each other play. So, it wasn't a roomful of strangers, necessarily, which made it really interesting.

Question: Any of them that you were intimidated by? Or did you find that they were intimidated by you?

Adriana Harmeyer: I think it worked that way, all around. I knew everybody there was going to be an amazing player. Knowing that you're going to have to go up against some of them is a strange feeling, but I think we all had that feeling.

Question: Was it any less nerve wracking, having been there? Or was there a whole new feeling of pressure?

Adriana Harmeyer: I think it was just different. Logistically, I knew where I was going, I knew how it all worked. But there was still that anticipation of, well, I still have to play. I'm playing tougher competition, and I want to do well.

Question: I wondered if it might be more relaxed, like playing with house money at that point.

Adriana Harmeyer: No, I don't think you could feel relaxed about it. There's still that sense that this is “Jeopardy” and you want to do well.

Question: What did you do to bone up this time? Did you change what you did approaching the Tournament of Champions?

Adriana Harmeyer: I did. The first time around, I kind of just wanted to go see if I could do it, and I did. And this time, I knew it was tougher competition, and I knew from my first time around which categories might be weaker for me. So, I did do a lot of reading and preparation to try to fill in some of those gaps where I felt like I could stand to brush up a bit.

Question: Anything in particular?

Adriana Harmeyer: I benefited from having an office in a library. I just got a lot of library books on a lot of different subjects, so I could get some knowledge from across the board.

Question: I think we talked at some point last summer about getting back into gaming, just to get some timing going that direction for the show. Did you do that?

Adriana Harmeyer: A little bit. I did a bit of a video game prep – maybe not as much as I intended or thought I would. But I did a bit of that to try to just get reaction time preparation for that buzzer side of things.

Question: Do you have a game that you that you prefer? I mean, do you play a “Jeopardy” game, or are you doing like Mario Brothers style of gaming?

Adriana Harmeyer: There's this whole genre called rhythm games. It's like the kind of thing a lot of music games have, where you have to hit the controller right as the beat’s happening on the game. It really is about timing. That's where I was putting my focus, just trying to get timing and reaction speeds.

Question: Did it pay off?

Adriana Harmeyer: It's really hard to judge. I don’t think it hurt. I'd like to think it helped a little bit, but it's really hard to say, because I was up against really tough competition in this whole Tournament of Champions. Everybody's going to be tough competition, but I appreciated that I at least had done that.

Question: Do you have watch parties planned for the Tournament of Champions?

Adriana Harmeyer: I'm still trying to decide that. I’ll probably do a little something.

Question: How have things changed for you in this time from where you had that amazing run in the summer to now? Is there a recognition in town or beyond? Or did things kind of settle back into where they were?

Adriana Harmeyer: Mostly settled in. But I do occasionally get recognized, especially during the summer when my episodes were airing. Occasionally, at the grocery store or walking across campus. That was something that I had to get used to, but it was never too much or overwhelming. Just an occasional, “Hey, were you on Jeopardy? Great job.” Just a quick, in-passing comment. I still think it's amazing that people care, that there are people who can recognize me from doing that. I expect that might happen again as the tournament airs, as well. But for the most part, not much has changed in my day to day.

Question: I keep waiting to hear that you've shown up at a trivia night here in town, and everybody takes off because it's like a gunslinger walking in. Did you do any of that kind of stuff?

Adriana Harmeyer: I haven’t. Maybe I should. But last year, I was really just trying to think about getting ready for this tournament. So, I haven’t ventured out, yet, to any of the trivia nights locally.

Question: Did you take enough clothes this time?

Adriana Harmeyer: I learned how to shove as much as I could into a suitcase last time around. So, I did the same thing this time, just to be ready.

Question: Anything else people should be aware of about taking in the tournament?

Adriana Harmeyer: I just recommend everybody watch the whole tournament, even if you just want to root for me, the local contestant. It's a whole field of excellent players. There's some really great games and the entire tournament, I think, is a really fun experience and worth watching.

• How to watch: “Jeopardy” airs locally at 7:30 p.m. on WLFI-TV18.

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