That 24-year-old whiz finding all the Daily Doubles on “Jeopardy!” this week?
His grandmother lives in Crawfordsville.
Brayden Smith of Las Vegas handily added a third day to his winning streak on the game show Thursday, despite getting stumped by the “Final Jeopardy!” question on play characters. (The other contestants missed it, too.)
Smith’s total cash winnings stood at $93,800 heading into Friday’s episode.
“I don’t know why he wagered anything because he wouldn’t have to,” said his grandmother, Wanda, who’s watching the show at a friend’s house because the channel is blacked out on her TV.
Smith and his family are longtime “Jeopardy!” viewers and he served as a high school team captain on a local TV quiz show.
He beat out his high school Latin teacher to land his spot on the nationally-syndicated program. The episodes were taped weeks before the death of longtime host Alex Trebek in November.“Alex called him ‘Billy Buzzsaw’ because he was just cutting through the competition the first couple of games,” said Smith’s father, Scott, a 1984 graduate of North Montgomery High School.
Indeed on Thursday, a clinical researcher and a lawyer hardly got a clue in edgewise as the young policy intern took early command of the board.
“Just playing the game is so much fun,” Smith told a member of the show’s “Clue Crew” in a clip aired on a Las Vegas television station. “You know, if I lost the first game… I still would have loved it.”
“Jeopardy!” airs weeknights on WTHR (Channel 13), WLFI (Channel 18) and WTWO (Channel 2).
