‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Micah Fritz Reveals He Spent 15 Years Trying to Get on Show

Jeopardy! contestant Micha Fritz finally lived out his dream of playing on the game show, and it turned out better than he could have imagined. Fritz won the game against a one-day champion on a really tough final question, after a long journey of trying to get on the show.

Fritz, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, won $14,200 during his first game against Emily Croke, from Denver, Colorado, and Nicholas Moline, from Mooresville, Indiana, on Tuesday, June 24. Fritz, 32, talked to his local newspaper about his journey to try and get on Jeopardy!.

He shared with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he has been taking the online test he was in high school (about 16 or 17). The champion, who took the test 10 times before landing on the show, started watching the game show when he was 10 years old and tried to make it home from school every day to watch it on time.

What drew him to Jeopardy! was “how fast-paced the show is, the variety of categories, and trying to solve the clever clues that pop up.” Fritz played along during the National College Championship and Teen Tournaments and tried to see how many he could get right. After graduating from high school in 2011, Fritz attended Concordia University-Wisconsin, where he studied secondary education and history, and graduated in 2016.

After his tenth attempt, Fritz finally received a callback in October 2024. He did another online test on camera and a Zoom audition. He waited months for a call back and finally received his in March.

The call came after he taught his high school students government, social studies, and personal finance at Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy. “It took me a while to really process it,” he told the outlet.

After finally achieving his dream, Fritz prepared as much as he could by watching Jeopardy! montages on YouTube while doing daily activities like going to the gym or on bike rides. He usually spent one to three hours per day studying.

In April, Fritz took his best friend from high school and traveled to California to film his episodes. “It doesn’t feel real until you go onto the stage for rehearsal and you see yourself in the monitor with all the lights on and you see what it’s going to look like on TV,” he said. “And then it really starts kicking in.”

Fritz loved that he got to experience his game more than once. “It’s nice that you get to live the experience twice: One for filming and then second to see it a month or two later,” the Jeopardy! champion told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I’m just happy that I don’t have to keep things a secret anymore and get to relive the experience with friends and family.”

Aside from being on Jeopardy!, Fritz enjoys gardening, biking, wood-working, volunteering, and screen-printing. “I’m enjoying summer break and some funemployment time,” Fritz told the outlet.

See Fritz play his second game on Wednesday, June 25, against two new opponents.

Jeopardy!, Weeknights, check local listings