‘Jeopardy’s’ Ken Jennings Apologizes to Female Contestant Over Questionable Clue
The Jeopardy! world is mourning a beloved champion.
Dr. Courtney Shah, a seven-time winner of the trivia game show, died on July 22 following a battle with brain cancer, her family confirmed. She was 52.
“My mom died today, at 4:57am on July 22, 2026, in the comfort of her home,” Courtney’s daughter Maya Shah wrote in a CaringBridge page that has since been made private, per Us Weekly. “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 expressed her her mother’s fans for their support following her brain cancer diagnosis.
“Thank you for your grace in all of this. It hasn’t been easy, it will continue not to be easy. Hug your loved ones,” she wrote. “Tell stories about my mom. Light a candle, say a prayer, pour out a drink— find something that feels meaningful to you to honor the gift that was her presence. Tell us about it on here, or hold it in your heart just for yourself.”
Courtney, a longtime history professor at Washington’s Lower Columbia College, first appeared on Jeopardy! in 2021, winning seven straight games and earning a total of $118,558, alongside the $2,000 she won for placing second in her eighth game, per the fan database J! Archive.
She returned to the popular game show the next year for the 2022 Tournament of Champions, where she placed third in her quarterfinals match, winning a cash prize of $5,000, according to Jeopardy!
Earlier this year, Courtney was diagnosed with brain cancer, which Maya announced in February.
“My mom has a brain tumor,” she shared on the CaringBridge page at the time. “Around the second week of January this year, my mom was experiencing some numbness and weakness in the left side of her face.”
The following month, Maya shared a heartbreaking update, writing that her mom was not “responding to radiation or chemo in the way we hoped.”
As Maya noted, Courtney decided to make “the brave, clear-eyed decision to stop treatment and transition to hospice,” with her daughter emphasizing that her family was standing “behind her” following her choice.
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While she was no longer undergoing treatment, Courtney seemed “more at-ease and content” than her family had seen in a long time.
“Although there’s no more treating the cancer with chemo or radiation,” Maya shared in a final update to the same CaringBridge page before her mother’s passing, “there’s comfort, time together, and lots of glimmers to be found.”
As for what was bringing Courtney happiness and light during the difficult time? Maya wrote, per People, that her mom was “watching basketball, rooting for Duke and firing off Jeopardy! answers before anyone else in the room.”
After Courtney won her fifth out of seven games in 2021, she reflected on her journey so far.
“I really never imagined I would get here,” she shared in a behind-the-scenes video at the time. “I’m not quite sure that this is actually reality yet.”
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