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UPDATE: Peachtree Corners Resident’s Jeopardy! Run Ends
Danielle Maurer defeated 23-game winner Mattea Roach Friday on the nationally syndicated game show, but missed the Final Jeopardy! question on Tuesday and is now out.
The start of Tuesday’s Jeopardy! broadcast was looking a little rocky for Peachtree Corners resident Danielle Maurer. After faltering a bit, she moved ahead of the pack of all women. Although it didn’t offer much in the way of additional money, another Atlanta-based clue may have boosted her confidence.
But the Final Jeopardy! category “Live Music” proved too much for the cosplayer and self-proclaimed “foam-smith.”
Picking up both Daily Doubles in the first eight clues and keeping contestant Mallory Kass from scoring during the first 13 clues of the round, Maurer looked like she might be able to pull off another win. Maurer led going into Final Jeopardy! with $13,400. Kass had $9,100 and Cherry Ignacio, who hadn’t made much of an impact, was at $2,800.
Before the parting music played, Maurer ended up in second place with $8,599. She’ll go home with an additional $2,000, bringing her total Jeopardy! winnings to $29,999. Ignacio bet $2,100, placing third. Kass bet 5,000, had the correct question and took home a one-day total of $14,100.
Maurer will probably never forget that “two and a half months after Woodstock ’99 made headlines for the terrible behavior of its attendees, the Coachella festival debuted at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles.”
Read previous stories about Maurer’s run below:
Although she pretty much stayed ahead the entire show, Peachtree Corners resident Danielle Maurer finished triumphantly on her second Jeopardy! appearance. With no help from geography on the Final Jeopardy! question, she still defeated newcomers Kasim Oliver and Emily Levant.
Literature didn’t appear to be her strong suit in the early Jeopardy! rounds and Maurer missed the question in the category “Novel Titles” in Final. But smart wagering saved the day once again. At $14,600 going into Final Jeopardy!, Maurer was well ahead of Levant who had $8,400 and Oliver whose incorrect answers when he did ring in left him at $1,400.
A conservative wager of $2,201 left Maurer with $12,399 for the Monday and a two-day total of $27,999. Will she continue the streak? Check back Tuesday evening for another update.
The original story is published below:
A Final Jeopardy! question set in metro Atlanta may have been the catalyst that catapulted Peachtree Corners resident Danielle Maurer into game show history. She defeated a seemingly unstoppable contestant, 23-game winner Mattea Roach, on Friday and was crowned the new Jeopardy! champion.
After placing a calculated wager of $4,200 and coming up with the correct response in Final Jeopardy!, the 31-year-old digital marketing manager from Peachtree Corners took down the long-running Canadian champion and won the game by $1 with a total of $15,600 in winnings.
“I was just standing up there with my pen and paper thinking this is the most important math that I will ever do in my life,” Maurer said in an interview with Sony Pictures, producer of the highly-rated game show. “I knew Mattea would bet to defend. She will bet as if I’m going to bet everything. So, if she gets it right, I lose. There’s no win scenario there for me. So, I’m going to bet as if she gets it wrong because that’s the only chance realistically that I am going to have.”
Maurer’s intuition proved to be right in the end. Roach, who placed a wager of $3,601, was unable to provide the correct Final Jeopardy! response and finished in second place with a total of $15,599.
“I did not expect to win going in there until they revealed her answer, and then I could just feel my heart start pounding,” Maurer said. “I’m from Atlanta, I’ve lived here for almost 10 years. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is the airport I fly out of constantly. So, I looked at that clue like surely it can’t be that easy, can it?”
(Reminder: Final Jeopardy! clues are written well in advance and selected randomly.)
Figuring out what to do with her prize money was also a no-brainer, the new Jeopardy! champion said in the interview.
“I have a basement that needs finishing,” Maurer said. “I do cosplay work and the basement is supposed to become my craft room. So, that’s a pretty good payment to get it completed.”
As a lifelong Jeopardy! fan, who has been trying out to be a contestant since she was 13, Maurer said winning her first game while slaying a giant like Roach in the process was a monumental accomplishment.
“I have been trying to get on the show for more than 15 years,” Maurer said. “This is something that I’m going to carry with me the rest of my life. It means more to me than I can say.”
When Maurer found out she was going to be a contestant, she said she knew there was a “strong possibility” that she may have to face off against a super-champion and she wanted to be prepared.
“I had been following the season. I knew about Matt (Amodio). I knew about Amy (Schneider),” Maurer said. “In fact, Amy’s episodes were airing when I got the call. So, we sort of practiced as if I was playing against Amy.”
Maurer spent countless evenings playing Jeopardy! with her husband and best friend using clues from previous games.
“We would check my results against Amy’s, like ‘Oh well, Amy missed the Final, but you got it,’” Maurer said. “‘So, you might have had a chance to take her there.’”
Amy Schneider’s run had come to an end before Maurer taped her first game, but she said she knew all of her practice against the 40-game champ would come in handy when it was her turn to play against Roach.
“When I walked into the studio, and they were like, ‘Our current 19-day champion Mattea Roach,’ I could just see the color draining out of everyone’s faces around me,” Maurer said. “For me, I’m sitting there like — yeah that’s about what I expected.”
While Maurer admits it is intimidating to go up against Jeopardy! giant, she said she wants future contestants to know one thing: “It doesn’t matter how well you do the day that you’re on the show. Just getting there is such an achievement within itself.”
Jeopardy! airs at 7:30 p.m. on WXIA, Channel 11 in the metro Atlanta area.
Olympian Jasmine Jones, a standout alumna of Greater Atlanta Christian School (Class of 2020), returned to her alma mater on September 12 to speak to and inspire the next generation of students there.
GAC staff interviewed Jones and also took questions from the students during a Q&A session that included every grade level.
As a member of the U.S. Olympic team and a 12-time Georgia state individual champion during her time at GAC, Jasmine’s visit was a homecoming filled with motivation and reflection. She spoke passionately to the students about the importance of perseverance, goal-setting, and embracing challenges, drawing from her journey from GAC to the University of Southern California and the global stage of the Olympics.
Jones qualified for the Paris Olympics on June 30 and made the U.S. team in women’s 400m hurdles after placing third. She went on to place fourth in the women’s 400m hurdles final at the Paris games.
Students and staff at GAC cheered Jones on during the Olympics. And they cheered her again as she took to the school’s stage to address the audience. Before and after the event, Jones posed for photos, gave high-fives and took time connect with some of GAC’s enthusiastic students and faculty.
Her words — and her accomplishments — left a powerful impression on the crowd, reminding everyone of the heights that can be achieved with dedication and faith.
For more about GACS, visit greateratlantachristian.org.
The renowned performers wowed the audience with a thrilling presentation of dance, drama and fun.
Staff, students and board members of the International Charter Academy of Georgia were given a short-but-thrilling taste of Kabuki when dancers from Miyabiya Japan stopped by the school on September 16 for a special performance.
Offering a preview of the full show they’d prepared for center stage at JapanFest 2024, the troop presented a special short section of a dance titled “Renjishi: The Two Lions.”
Considered one of the most famous pieces in Kabuki, Renjishi is known for its powerful choreography and dramatic expression. It tells the story of the relationship between a father lion and his young son. The powerful movements, dramatic expressions and percussive sound effects symbolize the passing of strength and legacy from one generation to the next.
How the show came about
Miyabiya Japan last appeared at JapanFest in 2016 to great acclaim. This year, with the excitement of their return, the performers made plans to offer a few shorter performances at other places around town in the week leading up to the festival.
Robert Johnson, an advisory board member of ICAGeorgia and a long-time friend of JapanFest and the Miyabiya troop, knew the dual-language, Japanese immersion school would be a great place for one of the shows. He helped organize the day’s demonstration and was on-hand to talk to the crowd and introduce the performers.
The performance
It was the first time having a Kabuki performance at ICAGeorgia. And, as students filed into the school’s gym, the excitement was palpable. The room was humming with happy voices before the show even began.
Johnson greeted the kids with a smile before introducing the award-winning Kabuki troop in both English and Japanese.
“This special group from Japan will be performing at JapanFest, but today they’re performing here for you,” he told the excited crowd.
He went on to explain, “Kabuki is a special form of very dramatic and traditional Japanese dance. Two dancers today will do the Lion Dance.” The youngest children in the crowd shrieked with delight when they heard the name.
“The Lion Dance is like the story of the Lion King,” he continued, “with an otousan (father) lion with a long white mane and his son with a bright red mane.”
After the short explanation of what to expect, Johnson instructed the students (and the adults in the audience) to call for the performers to come out. To the sounds of “Miyabi-ya, miyabi-ya,” from the crowd, the dancers bounded out into the room, onto the space set up for their performance. They greeted Mr. Johnson and the students before getting into the story.
An interactive experience
The show started with a brief instruction of Kabuki movements that got the audience on its feet, following the red lion’s lead. It ended with a bang of confetti that thrilled (and surprised) everyone there.
In between, the story of the two lions was beautifully expressed through the performers’ detailed costumes, traditional kumadori makeup, exaggerated expressions and dramatic movements. At times, the dancers even made their way into the audience. Students and adults alike were riveted from start to finish.
“I’m happy to have the performers come to our school,” said Junko Jones, a founding board member and CFO of ICAGeorgia. “Not all of the students will be able to go to JapanFest. So, it’s nice that they can experience Japan here.”
About ICAGeorgia
The International Charter School of Georgia is a K-6 Japanese immersion school located in Peachtree Corners. They currently have 250 students, with plans to expand the school to offer Grades 7–8 in the future.
Eighty-one of the students will sing onstage at JapanFest September 21 at 1pm. This will be school’s sixth time performing at the festival, having been there every year since the school opened. The students also performed at the state capital in January for Japan Day.
For more information about ICAGeorgia, visit internationalcharteracademy.org.
For more about JapanFest and Miyabiya Japan, visit japanfest.org
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