Rancho Bernardo High School Senior Takes Home $75,000!

(CULVER CITY, CA, November 21, 2008)?? Anurag Kashyap, a 16-year-old senior from Poway, California, defeated two high school juniors, Maryland's Audrey Hosford and Bradley Silverman from Georgia in the finals of the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament Friday, Nov. 21. 

"I was shocked to win the championship, because the other fourteen contestants were extremely smart and capable," said Kashyap. "The experience was just so fulfilling, and the fact that I had tried my best in every game I played meant that I would be truly satisfied with any result I turned out."

"For my family, going to Jeopardy! was much more significant," continued Kashyap. "We have been watching the show for almost ten years, and to be invited to participate in the tournament was a huge sentimental experience for us all."

Kashyap plans to save his Jeopardy! winnings for college, however, he did purchase a deck of Los Angeles-themed playing cards with which he and his fellow contestants played poker in the green room while waiting to compete.

In his spare time, the future biochemist enjoys reading and playing football and tennis with his friends. He is also an avid horror movie aficionado, saying "Japanese horror flicks are the best."

Bradley Silverman, who attends Centennial High School in Alpharetta, Georgia finished 2^nd and won $44,600.  Third place winner Audrey Hosford, a student at Archbishop Spalding High School in Annapolis, Maryland took home $26,400. The two-week competition featured 15 students from across the country.

The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament was taped at the Sony Studios in Culver City, California on October 6 and 7.

In the Teen Tournament, players compete in a series of five shows the first week.  The winners of those games and the four highest money-earners go on to the semi-finals, and the three winners of those shows proceed to a two-game finals match.  The three finalists keep the money they accumulate in the last two games. Players reaching the semi-finals are guaranteed $10,000, while every player is guaranteed at least $5,000. For more information regarding the tournament, please visit http://www.jeopardy.com/.

Jeopardy!, a winner of 28 Emmy awards since its debut in 1984, was recently inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most awards won by a TV Game Show. The series is the #1-rated quiz show in syndication and has held that title for over 1,000 weeks. 

Jeopardy! is produced by Sony Pictures Television, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company. It is distributed domestically and internationally by CBS Television Distribution, a unit of CBS Corp. 

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