Becomes first champ of the new season

Earns Spot in 2011 Tournament of Champions

CULVER CITY, CALIF. (Sept. 23, 2011) – Justin Sausville, a 30-year-old urologist from Baltimore, Md., won a total of $136,000 during his seven-day appearance on “Jeopardy!”  His strong performance also earned him a spot in the prestigious “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions, airing Nov. 2-15.

“I certainly didn’t expect things would go as well as they did,” Sausville said. “My main goal was that I wouldn’t embarrass myself on national television!”

Ever since he was a child, Sausville has dreamed of competing on “Jeopardy!”  Sausville said that he didn’t do anything special to prepare for the competition except get a good night’s sleep before each match.  Regarding his performance, he said, “I think that having some familiarity with the signaling device helped a lot.  Though, I think that competitive advantage went away pretty quickly since most of the other players caught on.”

Sausville’s favorite moment of the competition was correctly indentifying the Griffith Observatory as the correct response to “Final Jeopardy!” in his second match.  “The only reason I knew the answer was that I had been flipping through the tourist brochures in my hotel room the night before.  I happened to pick up the correct response without even knowing it.”

Sausville earned his Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., and a medical degree from the University of Maryland.  He credits his knowledge of science and history to his success on the show.  “Fortunately, those subject areas were well represented.  I don’t know much about movies, television or music trivia.”

Sausville, who enjoys reading and cooking, hopes to use some of his winnings to travel.  “We’d love to go somewhere off the beaten path like Thailand or Africa.” He added, “We're also in the process of buying a house, so some extra funds would be extremely useful.”

“Jeopardy!,” the winner of 29 Emmy awards since its debut in 1984, was 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 with nearly 9 million daily viewers.  “Jeopardy!” is produced by Sony Pictures Television, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company. It is distributed domestically by CBS Television Distribution and internationally by CBS Television International, both units of CBS Corp. 

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