“If our tab costs less than $77,000,” I greet Roger Craig at a Rosslyn café, “you’re paying.”
He laughs at my reference to the 2010s Jeopardy! episode in which he set the game show’s then-record for most money won, which stood for nine years. In May, ABC invited Craig back for the monthlong primetime tournament Jeopardy! Masters, featuring nine of the all-time best contestants. He finished in sixth place.
Yet Craig may be most famous for marrying fellow Jeopardy! legend Julia Collins. By one metric, she outranks him: Collins won 20 consecutive games in her original run. In his first run, Craig “only” won six games.
They announced their marriage publicly on Craig’s return to the show earlier this year. “At the [Jeopardy!] All-Star Games, I reconnected with Julia Collins. I first met her in New York about 10 years ago. And we’re married now!” Craig told host Ken Jennings during his contestant interview. “It’s wonderful, and the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Craig and Collins have never played against each other in an official game … at least not yet. “The producers seem interested in making that happen,” Craig reveals. “But there’s just the two of us. Who would be the third contestant?”
Both Craig and Collins grew up in NoVA. He graduated from Annandale High School, and she graduated from McLean’s Madeira School. After moving around in adulthood, including stints in Delaware and New York, he returned to Arlington in 2018. Today, he’s a senior applied scientist at AngelQ, an internet browser designed for kids.
Craig and Collins live in Arlington’s East Falls Church neighborhood. Asked for some of his favorite Northern Virginia spots, he cites jogging at Theodore Roosevelt Island and dining at Arlington’s Sawatdee Thai Restaurant.
Did he host watch parties for Jeopardy! Masters? “My first two games both aired at 9:30 [p.m.],” he says. “That’s too late. I’m 48 now.” He was 33 during his original run, and was chosen to compete after his third audition attempt.
I end our interview by asking the final Jeopardy! clue that knocked him out during his original run. The category was “Sports and the Media.” And the clue was: “On February 8, 2010, the headline in a major newspaper in this city read, ‘Amen! After 43 Years, Our Prayers Are Answered.’”
Craig smirks and says “Chicago?” before quickly adding, “No, I’m just kidding” because that was his wrong answer on the show. The actual answer is New Orleans, because of the Saints’ 2010 Super Bowl win.
“Trust me,” Craig says of the correct response, “you never forget it.”
Feature image courtesy ‘Jeopardy!’ and Sony Pictures Television
This story originally ran in our July Issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
