6 Things to Know About ‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Ashley Chan

This… Is… Jeopardy!

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Ashley Chan won her fourth game of Jeopardy! on Tuesday night (December 17) despite a small wager that almost cost her the victory.

The publicist from Lewisville, Texas, entered the episode as a three-day champion, having amassed $46,500 in her previous appearances. She faced tough competition from Jasmine Zhou, an ASIC engineer and experienced quizzer from Woodland, California.

Chan and Zhou were pretty evenly matched throughout the game, with Chan leading with $18,800 heading into Final Jeopardy and Zhou not far behind with $15,600. Both women answered the final clue correctly, but it was Chan who secured the win by just a $300 margin.

As Chan’s streak continues, here are six things you should know about the rising fan favorite.

She Wanted to be a TV Anchor

In an interview for the Hofstra University news website, Chan revealed she “originally wanted to be a TV anchor.” She once hosted the student-run newscast Hofstra Today “and did a bunch of TV programs in the Herbert School of Communication.”

“I told a lot of people before I went on Jeopardy!, ‘Oh, I feel like I have a leg up on other contestants because I’ve been on TV before and hosted programs,'” she shared. “I also did debate in high school. So, being on stage in front of people didn’t make me nervous.”

“Having experience with hands-on news work was really helpful for me because I was able to focus on gameplay and not worry if my mic was messing up, if I was looking in the wrong direction, or if my outfit was OK,” she continued.

Chan graduated from Hofstra University in 2015 with a B.A. in Journalism and a B.A. in Political Science, as well as minors in both French and European Studies.

Ashley Chan Facebook

She Works in Public Relations

According to Chan’s LinkedIn page, she works as a Senior Account Executive for the public relations agency Dala Communications, based in Dallas, Texas, a certified Woman-owned Business Enterprise with the National Women’s Enterprise Certification.

As part of her role, Chan serves as direct contact for multiple clients across several different industries, coordinates media relations between clients and the media, creates press releases, manages social media profiles, and oversees hiring and management of Dala’s intern program.

She also runs the wedding-based website Hepburn and Handbags.

She Is Married

Ashley, whose maiden name is Mungiguerra, and her husband, Zachary Chan, met in April 2013 during their freshman year at Hofstra University, per The New York Times. They first met while celebrating a mutual friend’s birthday party, though they didn’t start dating until their junior year.

Just a few months into their relationship, Chan left campus for an exchange program at the University of Amsterdam. However, both were committed to making the romance work despite the long distance.

Things obviously worked out, as the couple returned to Amsterdam for New Year’s Eve in 2018, where Zachary proposed. Chan and Zachary tied the knot on October 16, 2021, at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.

She Has Been Waiting to Play Jeopardy! for Years

Chan has loved Jeopardy! since she was a child, telling Hofstra News, “I have figured out over the years that you either grew up in a Jeopardy! family or you didn’t – and I very much did. My grandparents still watch every night. I love trivia. I have always wanted to be on the show, so I take the test every year.”

She revealed she initially got picked to audition back in 2016, but she’d just graduated and started a new job, so she couldn’t do it. Then the long wait began, as it wasn’t until May this year Chan received an email inviting her to take a second test.

“Then, in July, I was invited to audition. And I started thinking, ‘Hey, this is getting real.’ So, I auditioned in July, and the show’s producers said, ‘Okay, now you’re in the contestant pool for two years. You could hear from us anytime between tomorrow and two years from now.'”

After thinking she was “going to be stressed for the next two years,” Chan said she heard back from the producers at the end of September telling her she’d been selected and asked if she could be on the show in a month.

“I was like, ‘Yes. Absolutely. I can be there.’ So, I went to Los Angeles with my husband and two friends and filmed the show at the end of October,” she added.

Jeopardy, Inc!

She Says the Buzzer Is the ‘Hardest’ Part of Jeopardy!

Chan explained that buzzer technique “was the hardest part” of the show, saying, “It is so much more difficult than it looks on TV.”

“As soon as Ken Jennings is done reading the clue, these lights go up on either side of the screen. If you buzz in before the lights, it locks you out for about a fifth of a second,” she told Hoftra. “That’s not that long, but it’s enough time for someone else to buzz in once the lights go up. So, you have to listen to the clue, watch the lights, wait for it, buzz, and then hope that you got it. And there are lights that come on in front of your podium if you did it first, and then Ken would call on you.”

She also explained that each contestant gets to “rehearse the buzzer” before filming begins. “You get up. You’re at the podium. You’re playing with the buzzer. We did two rounds of rehearsal, which was great, very much needed,” Chan stated.

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She Has High Praise for Ken Jennings

Speaking about her experience on the show, Chan had kind words for Jennings, noting, “[He] came out beforehand, and he was so nice. He was very funny. He congratulated us on being there and said, ‘You’ve done something that 99% of people will never do.'”

She continued, “And I was like, ‘This is so cool. That’s Ken!’ It was wild. It was a wild experience from start to finish.”