Law Student Slays Jeopardy Villain

So what law school boasts a Jeopardy champ? Or maybe we should put that in the form of an answer.

The most polarizing figure in the field of syndicated trivia programming watched over a microwaved TV dinner is Arthur Chu. Chu, a 30-year-old insurance analyst, has lit up his competition on Jeopardy since late January. Chu rejected the tried-and-true method of running categories from top to bottom — giving the viewer a pleasurable run of questions with an increasing level of difficulty — to employ game theory in a mad hunt for Daily Doubles. Some hated him. Some Jeopardy experts defended him. Most of us really didn’t care that much over the media-manufactured controversy.

For a bit it seemed the only things capable of halting his reign of terror were Jeopardy’s prescheduled tournaments, which did put the champ on ice for a few weeks.

But last night, a law student put Chu down. Sure, that’s impressive, but could she win the next ATL Trivia Night? (It will be in D.C. on Wednesday, April 2; RSVP here.)

So what law school boasts a Jeopardy champ?

Or maybe, “This law school boasts the current Jeopardy champ.”

“What is the University of Michigan?”

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Diana Peloquin, a University of Michigan Law student, took down Chu by snagging a pair of Daily Doubles from his grasp — he botched the third. Now Michigan can add a Jeopardy champ to “shepherd” when listing the careers it’s launched. Maybe it’ll take the sting out of that drop in the U.S. News Rankings.

Here’s Peloquin’s “Hometown Howdy” (at the :46 mark):

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Corny humor, check!

Peloquin secured $15,700 in her first Jeopardy win after successfully identifying the last male British monarch who had not previously been Prince of Wales. The answer is George VI, by the way, who took the crown upon his brother’s abdication.

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This Jeopardy haul isn’t the only big win for Peloquin in the past few months. Back in October, she was named a 2014 Dean’s Public Service Fellow, which carries a $7,000 cash award to help support her public service legal employment during the summer after her second year. Some more wins over the next few days and Peloquin might just be able to afford her planned public service career.

Peloquin’s public service career is off to a good start for putting an end to the mind-numbingly dumb “hero or villain” articles about Arthur Chu.

U-M law student Diana Peloquin talks about her win on ‘Jeopardy!’ [Ann Arbor News]
ATL Kaplan DC Trivia – April 2, 2014 [registration form]