UBC graduate turned Jeopardy! champion going for 4th win Friday

A Richmond man will appear on his fourth Jeopardy! episode of the week Friday after becoming a three-time champion.

Brendan Liaw, a recent UBC graduate who describes himself as a stay-at-home son, tells 1130 NewsRadio that the whole experience of living out his dream on the trivia game show has been surreal.

He says Tuesday night’s first win was “a bit of a roller coaster” to reach.

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“I was pretty deep in the hole at some point and then managed to make the comeback. Ran into a tough Final Jeopardy category but pulled out the win. So that was exciting,” Liaw explained.

“Everything after that has been gravy. You want to win one so you can call yourself a champion, and then, yeah, you’re just there for the ride after that. ‘How long can we keep this going?'”

But Liaw can’t contractually say how many of the pre-recorded episodes he’s already won. He says keeping secrets has been difficult and dreamlike.

“You can’t talk about it for like two months, and you’re like, ‘Did I hallucinate everything?’ My dad and a couple of friends were there, so I’ve been texting them the past couple months periodically, being like, ‘Did I actually do this? Or did I just dream that I was on?’ And they’re like, ‘No, we were there. We saw you. There’s physical evidence of you there playing.'”

Liaw’s sister says the champion has remained humble as the wins air on TV. He says he was first humbled and surprised to learn how difficult the game was to play.

“I feel like I knew a lot of things going in, and I was like, ‘I’m pretty sure I can pull it away.’ But then that first game was like, ‘Holy crap, I might lose. I might genuinely lose.’ And these people are, like, really smart and really fast, and it’s tough; they make you work for it,” said Liaw.

“And big kudos to all my competitors, because they were all fantastic. And I wish I could play with them again, just for fun. It is just a lot of fun to play against people who are clever.”

Liaw thanked the people of Metro Vancouver and said he’s been shocked by the hometown love he’s received since posting about his appearances online.

“I’m really heartened by all the support. And I hope I’m doing the city proud.”

Liaw will appear in the next pre-recorded episode of Jeopardy!, which airs at 7 p.m. Pacific Time, Friday.