DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — An upcoming “Jeopardy!” episode will see a Miami Valley local take one of the podiums.
After coming out on top on Thursday’s “Jeopardy!,” Steven Hoying, a Columbus lawyer and native of Russia, Shelby County, will return to the game on Friday, April 18.
Hoying grew up in Russia and went on to earn law degrees at The Ohio State University and the University of Chicago. He now works as an attorney at Porter-Wright out of Columbus.
Hoying achieved one of his lifelong dreams to appear on “Jeopardy!”, one of his favorite childhood TV shows. His score of $29,403 was enough to top defending champion Andrew Hayes ($13,410) and Michelle Dolinski ($8,400).
“It’s surprising, like I did all that studying for ‘Jeopardy!’ now, but I would say I took very little of that that’d be any good while I was actually on the show,” Hoying said over Zoom. “A lot of it was stuff that I’d learned up through high school, college, but a lot of it [was] from when I used to compete on the academic teams at Russia, was just kind of the best preparation for it.”
Steven said that he plans to watch the episode with his family once they’re together for Easter.
For those interested in being on the show one day, his advice is simple: Don’t give up.
“Don’t give up hope of being on. Like, I’ve been trying out to be on ‘Jeopardy!’ for years and even this time I took the ‘Anytime Test’ online three years before I taped. So, it was a long process to get on and at every step I was like, ‘they’re not going to pick me.’ But eventually they did and I’m glad I never gave up hope and always kept looking forward to my chance to get on.”
The episode airs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
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