Watch Cindy Stowell’s testimonial recapping her amazing ‘Jeopardy’ run
For the past week, Jeopardy viewers got the privilege to witness one of the most inspirational runs in the history of the show in the form of Cindy Stowell, a 41-year-old science content developer from Austin, Texas. It was also a bittersweet run: Stowell had Stage IV cancer when she recorded her episodes in August and September, and passed away on Dec. 5, a few days before her championship run would air. She won over $100,000 during her time on the show — which will go to cancer research, per her request — and she did it under intense conditions.
The show records five episodes a day during set filming dates, and she competed in her first four episodes on Aug. 31 under considerable physical and mental impairments. She was nauseated that morning, her fever broke in the middle of an episode, and she was in so much abdominal pain that she took painkillers, Mr. Hess said.
The drugs delayed her reaction time — which happens to be among the most important motor skills for contestants on “Jeopardy!” She needed help getting up and down the stairs to the set.
One of the neat things about Jeopardy is the break time when host Alex Trebek meets with the contestants, giving the audience an opportunity to learn a little about them. With Stowell, learning quirky and mundane tidbits about her felt like a refreshing distraction from the elephant in the room: she wrote homework questions, despite wanting to avoid homework in high school; she was part of a lab group that focused on eating competitions; she had a nail polish collection; she loved watching terrible movies; she used to play rugby, realized she wasn’t good at it, and then switched to ultimate frisbee.
The woman who loved trivia lived a whole life full of it. It was an honor learning all these things while she was on Jeopardy.
After the credits in her final episode, Trebek sent his condolences to Stowell’s loved ones on behalf of everyone on the show.
There was one more opportunity to learn new things about her: On the night Stowell’s final episode aired, Jeopardy posted her testimonial, which you can watch at the top of this post. We got to learn that she unsuccessfully tried out for the Teen Tournament in the ninth grade, and that she loved Big Trouble in Little China. We also got to see her friends and family in attendance, who witnessed Stowell fulfill a lifelong dream.
She fought hard to be on Jeopardy and become a champion, to stay champion for as long as she could, to win money to help others. She’s gone, but she won.
Thank you, Cindy. Rest in peace.
