UWM researcher comes from behind to win more than $300,000 on ‘Jeopardy!’
Jeopardy! champion Michael Falk, a UWM researcher, and wife Courtney, display his winnings.
By Laura L. Hunt
Michael Falk, a UWM research meteorologist in the Atmospheric Sciences lab of Assistant Professor Vince Larson, won $250,000 in the “Jeopardy Tournament of Champions” that aired in May. He also took home more than $59,000 in a four-day stint on the show in April.
Representatives from WDJT-TV, Channel 58, the Milwaukee CBS affiliate that broadcasts the game show, threw him a surprise party on campus Tuesday to formally acknowledge his accomplishments.
“I’m kind of glad it’s over now, so we don’t have to keep all these secrets,” said Courtney Falk, Michael’s spouse. The couple knew the outcome of the tournament four weeks before they could tell anyone. They had promised secrecy until the episode aired on TV.
Falk is a self-professed “Jeopardy” junkie. Walk into his office in the Engineering and Mathematical Sciences building and you’ll notice the “Jeopardy” desk calendar, along with the chalkboard covered in handwritten “Jeopardy” categories and numbered answers.
The West Allis native, who has been on campus for two years, spent a year waiting to be chosen as a “Jeopardy” contestant after acing the audition exam.
“I have a lifelong love of trivia,” he concedes. “I did the ‘Quiz Bowl’ and played ‘Trivial Pursuit’ all through college at Iowa State. ‘Jeopardy’ is the Holy Grail for trivia fans. So when I found out that there was a contestant search going on in Madison, I jumped at the chance to try out.”
Falk’s advantage lay in his ability to predict the behavior of his opponents and to rack up high scores. In fact, he discovered that losing with a high enough score can land you another chance.
After three victories, when his demise came in his fourth regular episode, he said he felt relief rather than disappointment. “I don’t want to sound like I didn’t care, but I had already won $60,000 and the pressure was off. I had accomplished what I wanted: I had won a game and earned some money to pay off my school loans. I had met Alex Trebek. So I was playing for fun and having the time of my life doing it.”
But his overall score made him eligible to compete in the tournament, which featured the top two college winners and the 13 best regular winners from the previous year and a half.
Though he ranked 12th going into the tournament and he lost the first game, Falk accumulated a score of 14,000, enough to buy him an extra game, which he won in a nail-biter that came down to out-wagering his closest opponent by $1.
The remaining three champions then faced each other in two final games, with the $250,000 prize going to the player with the highest total points.
“He came from far behind in the finals and quickly closed in on his opponents,” said “Jeopardy” host Trebek. “He is a true champion and it was exciting to watch him win.”
View Falk’s stats at http://www.j-archive.com/showplayerstats.php?player_id=1804 and Falk’s Web site at www.e-falk.com/jeopardy.php.
URL: http://www.uwm.edu/News/Features/06.05/Falk_Jeopardy2.html
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