Macon Youngster Wins Jeopardy! Galapagos Sweepstakes

Remember the National Geographic / Lindblad Expeditions Galapagos Sweepstakes that ran on Jeopardy! during the last week of April and the first week of May 2017? The Telegraph reports that one of the winners is a 5th grader from Macon, Georgia, and his mother.

Evidently, 10-year-old Stephen Leach has such a keen interest in trivia that his Quiz Bowl adviser told him he ought to watch Jeopardy! and he became an avid fan of the quiz show. Stephen and his mother, Marie Sale, faithfully filled in the daily entries during the sweepstakes with the secret words. They were:

Week 1: (4/24 – 4/28/2017): TORTOISE, EXPEDITION, SEA LION, CONSERVATION, SNORKEL

Week 2: (5/01 – 5/05/2017): IGUANA, KAYAK, BLUE-FOOTED BOOBY, WILDLIFE, EXPLORE

Their trip will begin on Oct. 6 when they fly first to Miami and then to Ecuador to get on board the National Endeavor II ship. He is especially looking forward to meeting Jeopardy!’s long-time host Alex Trebek.

Stephen says he does pretty well coming up with the correct responses to the regular Jeopardy! matches. “A 10-year-old is playing adult ‘Jeopardy’ for people twice my age and I can still get the questions right,” he said. “It just amazes me how I can do that.” Looks like we may be seeing Stephen talk about his Galapagos adventure on the Jeopardy! stage during the chat one day.

Jeopardy! published a list of all the winners, working a bunch of the secret words in, on JBuzz at the end of July.

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8 Responses

  1. Cece says:

    “A 10-year-old is playing adult ‘Jeopardy’ for people twice my age and I can still get the questions right.” “It just amazes me how I can do that.”

    Hard to be humble when you’re that good, huh, kid.

    • VJ says:

      LOL, Cece. I liked when the reporter asked him if he got a lot of the answers right and he said, “Don’t you mean questions?” ha ha ha. I would have said, “no, kid, I mean answers phrased in the form of a question” 😉

      Seriously, though, at home I don’t think most people answer in question form. At least I don’t, because it would make it harder to get it in before the player.

      Anyway, he’s got good luck. Bon voyage to him.

      • Cece says:

        Hahaha. Yeah, bon voyage to him, but I wouldn’t want to be his tour guide, though.

        • rhonda says:

          I feel sorry for poor Alex, I’d hate to find out what the kid has in mind when he talks about holding him captive for all of those days.

        • VJ says:

          hahaha, Cece, me neither!

          @Rhonda, that was funny. I’m sure the kid’s luck will hold up in getting an autograph but the phone number? Nah, I can’t see that happening.

        • Cece says:

          I say Alex cracks on day 3, after the kid relentlessly drills him on physics, chemistry and math—gives up phone number. Or jumps overboard.

        • VJ says:

          rofl — I love it!!

        • rhonda says:

          Alex will be reduced to mumbling in his French accent. And this will be the first and last contest of its kind on Jeopardy.