Meet the family of Jeopardy! champ James Holzhauer
NAPERVILLE, Ill. (CBS 58) -- There’s a trivia king dominating one of America’s most popular game shows.
As of Wednesday night, James Holzhauer has won 20 games for a total of more than $1.5 million.
The 10 highest-scoring games of all time belong to him.
In a living room in Naperville, Illinois, he goes by a different title than “returning champ”: Uncle Jamie.
Holzhauer grew up in the Chicago suburb with his brother, Ian. Ian now lives there with his wife, Julie, and their four children.
They’ve watched every episode of Uncle Jamie’s remarkable run.
"It's been surreal the last few weeks,” Ian said.
Ian and Julie’s daughter, Scarlett, says everyone at her school’s been talking about it.
The family says they’re genuinely in the dark about how long Holzhauer’s run lasts, but they find it hard to bet against him.
"We didn't know but honestly none of this is all that surprising either,” Julie said.
Ian says his brother had a great memory for everything from ‘The Simpsons’ quotes to baseball statistics.
"He could do long division problems in his head and give you an answer with remainder and decimal points,” Ian said.
Holly Lee taught Holzhauer in her AP European History class at Naperville North High School.
She says he always knew the right answer, but he was quiet and had to be stimulated to fully engage.
"I think he was a little bored with high school,” Lee said. “I know that he was more of a science and math kind of student."
Somewhat amazingly, Jeopardy! didn’t see Holzhauer’s greatness right away.
"He took the test 13 times and then went in for 2 in-person interviews and they said they'd wait 22 months before he finally got the call," Julie said.
Holzhauer goes for his 21st win Thursday at 6 p.m. on CBS 58.