One-day 'Jeopardy!' champion is from Rochester area

Jeopardy! had a new champion Wednesday night, and he’s from the Rochester area.

However, software engineer Josh Gruenberg, who graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2009 and works at Fairport’s Sharp Notions, reigned for just one night.

Gruenberg, who grew up in Syracuse and settled in Rochester after attending RIT, auditioned for the long-running game show in June 2018 in Cleveland after successfully completing the Jeopardy! online test. He got the call in late October to appear on the program and taped his episodes in early December at the show's Culver City, California, studio.

"It had really been a lifelong goal," he said. "I remember watching the show as a kid growing up."

Gruenberg's wife, Julia Novakovic, was one of the people who helped him prepare for his moment in the spotlight. She was a Jeopardy! contestant in 2015, when the two were still dating.

"She had made up 1,000 flashcards to study," he said, "so I had access to all of those. Plus, I built a practice game for us to play" — complete with buzzers. "After I got the call, every weekend, we'd have friends over to our house to challenge me at Jeopardy!"

On his first day, he was up against returning champ Danyelle Long-Hyland, a scientist from Ranson, West Virginia; and Jamie Wylie, a writer from North Hollywood, California.

After the first two rounds Wednesday night, Gruenberg was in the lead with $8,000, Wylie was second with $7,300, and Long-Hyland was third with $5,400, according to fan site fikklefame.com. And Gruenberg was the only one of the three to get the Final Jeopardy question right in the category 20th Century European Leaders: “In a 1930s broadcast, this man spoke of ‘a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.’”

Wylie and Long-Hyland both answered Winston Churchill, which was wrong. The correct answer, which Gruenberg got, was Neville Chamberlain.

Gruenberg wagered $6,601 and won the game with $14,601.

Gruenberg tweeted along with Wednesday and Thursday night’s taped episode.

Regarding that Final Jeopardy clue Wednesday, he wrote: “History isn't my strongest topic either, but that category name really helps narrow things down. 20th century, Europe, probably something to do with one of those World Wars.”

On Thursday, Gruenberg held a slim lead going into Final Jeopardy with $17,200. The International Literature clue was, "There are reminiscences of branding cattle and lassoing steers in 'Martin Fierro,' the national poem of this Western Hemisphere country." His competitors both correctly answered Argentina, while he said Brazil, losing his wager of $15,401.

"It's too bad," he said on Friday, "but I just didn't know the answer there — what can you do? I feel very lucky to have won a game."

Brooke MacKenzie, a Toronto attorney, won Thursday's game with $17,300, and Meaghan Kaplan, a transformation analyst from Alexandria, Virginia, finished second with $15,200.

The show airs at 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday on WROC-TV (Channel 8).

Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to MGREENWO@Gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter as @MarciaGreenwood. Your subscription makes work like this possible.