'It was a blast': Winnipeg woman is the newest Jeopardy! champion

Winnipegger competes on 'Jeopardy!' Winnipegger Emma Hill Kepron talks about the process of being chosen to compete on 'Jeopardy!' and what her favourite category is.

One Winnipeg woman is a Jeopardy! champion.

Emma Hill Kepron, who is the associate dean of the University of Winnipeg Library, competed on Thursday’s episode of the famous game show and walked away the winner with $11,400.

“It was a blast and it went so fast,” she said in an interview with CTV Morning Live on Friday.

“I tried to take it all in and enjoy every minute of it, but it went by really fast.”

To get selected for the show, Hill Kepron first completed an online test. Since she passed the test, she received an email asking if she’d like to audition, and went through the audition process over Zoom.

“You do the audition and you don’t know how it goes, they don’t tell you anything,” she explained.

“Then if you’re lucky you’ll get a call saying, ‘Can you come down to L.A.?’”

Hill Kepron said she got the call to be on the show right before Christmas and went down to shoot the episode in February.

The categories for her episode included 80s and 90s R&B, and Barbara Walters – a topic Hill Kepron did particularly well in.

“Who knew I knew so much about Barbara Walters? I think that’s an age thing because I knew what 20/20 was,” she laughed.

Hill Kepron said she thought she was going to be nervous during her time on Jeopardy!, but the producers and crew members helped her to stay calm.

“They tell you exactly where to be, exactly what’s going to happen and it just really [alleviates] that anxiety,” she said.

Hill Kepron said she was “really pleased” about winning, adding that the win didn’t fully sink in until the host Ken Jennings announced it.

“I was pretty sure [I won] when I saw the other guys’ scores. I thought, ‘Oh, I think I’ve got this,’ but I didn’t actually believe it until he actually said it,” she said.

Hill Kepron said she’s going to put her winnings towards something “pragmatic” like her landscaping.

She will attempt to become a two-day champion on Friday.