Dr. Courtney Shah, a seven-time champion on the game show “Jeopardy!”, died on Wednesday at the age of 52 after a battle with brain cancer. Her daughter, Maya Shah, announced her death on a CaringBridge page.
Shah, who was a professor at Lower Columbia College for nearly two decades, passed away peacefully at her home. "I don’t know what you believe about death, but I like to think that she’s at peace now. We loved her in this world, and we loved her out of this world, and we’ll go on loving her," Maya Shah wrote in an update. She added, "Hug your loved ones."
Shah competed on “Jeopardy!” in 2021, achieving a seven-game win streak and earning $118,558. She also placed second in her eighth game, winning an additional $2,000. She later participated in the 2022 Tournament of Champions.
According to family posts on the CaringBridge page, Shah had been receiving hospice care at home and learned in March that her radiation and chemotherapy treatments had not been effective. Despite her illness, family members noted that she continued to engage with the show, reportedly "firing off Jeopardy answers before anyone else in the room."
In a behind-the-scenes video shared after her fifth win, Shah expressed disbelief at her success on the show, stating, “I really never imagined I would get here. I’m not quite sure that this is actually reality yet.”