‘Jeopardy!’: Harrison Whitaker’s Mom Speaks Out as Son Becomes Super-Champion

Harrison Whitaker‘s mom, Beth, spoke out about her son’s reign on Jeopardy! that has put him in super-champion status. Harrison, from Terre Haute, Indiana, has won 10 games, and it already in the top 20 players for All-Time Winnings with $289,600 following the November 24 episode.

'Jeopardy!' superchamp Harrison Whitaker on set

Beth talked with their local news station, WTWO, about her son’s streak and how he got involved with Jeopardy! and trivia. “You can’t describe how nerve-racking it is as a parent who wants the best for their child. Watching them on national television,” she told the outlet.

“We have been absolutely overwhelmed, touched, moved, by the support of the Terre Haute community. It has moved me to tears more than once. We are so blessed to have raised our children; we have three children, and they all were in their formative years raised in Terre Haute, and it is just a beautiful place to raise a family, and we feel very blessed that we had that opportunity with our children.”

After his big win on Friday and should he win on Monday, Harrison Whitaker could be @Jeopardy!'s 19th Super-Champion!! #Jeopardy! 📺🟦💰

Beth shared that Harrison didn’t come from a trivia family and learned to love it in college. “We didn’t do trivia, you know, bar trivia or anything like that with him growing up; the only thing we did was Trivial Pursuit. And that was just periodic,” she said. “All of this began to happen when he went to college and began to be able to kind of get into the quizzing circuit there.”

 

Harrison also told the outlet that being on the game show is more than “having knowledge.” “Being able to be the first on the buzzer consistently is what really matters,” he said.

See him below with his sisters.

He also set the record this season for most right answers in a single game and the biggest payout of the season. “If you’d ask me after the game, I would have just said I had got in a bit of a groove. I had no idea that I had broken a series record,” Harrison said.

The super-champ was also shocked to find out that there are only 15 minutes in between taping each episode. “When you win a game, you have to be back out on stage in fifteen minutes, ready to play the next one, so like that is just a completely different experience than what I expected,” said Harrison.

Jeopardy!' 6 Things to Know About Champion Harrison Whitaker

“Right where you think you win a game, and then you get to go, have a nice sleep and rest up and do a bit of prep. But no, like you win a game, they, you know, get you into a new outfit and you’re back on the stage in ten minutes basically.”

Although he lives in England now, Harrison grew up in Indiana with his mom, Beth, dad, Todd, and sisters, Katherine and Madeline. Both of his parents are college professors, which ingrained a love of learning into Harrison.