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Emily Burnham arrived at a parking garage at 7:15 a.m. with half a dozen outfits and a sense of wonder. Pretty quickly, she met 11 other people in exactly the same boat: They were all realizing their lifelong dream of appearing on “Jeopardy!”

Even though she went on to win $17,201 and another day on the show, the Bangor resident said her favorite part of the experience was meeting the other contestants.

“We’re all just sitting there, wide-eyed and excited,” Burnham, 44, said in an interview Thursday. “All we can be is excited and supportive together.”

A Waldo County native who studied English and philosophy at the University of Maine, Burnham took to the Alex Trebek Stage in the “Jeopardy!” episode that aired Wednesday night.

She’s a 20-year veteran of the Bangor Daily News, where she was a reporter and editor. Today, she runs a Substack newsletter called The Other Maine, which she shouted out during the interview portion of the show with host Ken Jennings.

Burnham spent most of the first round in the red, but climbed out thanks to a correct response about the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

She hit her stride in the Double Jeopardy! round with a category about 60s movie quotes, and got the first Daily Double of the round, winning $1,200 on a clue about “Lawrence of Arabia.” Two clues later she snagged the other Daily Double, and hesitantly answered “What is Belize?” the correct response, putting her out ahead of her competitors.

She was leading the pack by the end of the round, with $11,400, and in Final Jeopardy!, Burnham’s $5,801 wager on the category “2026 Commencement Speeches” paid off. 

The clue was: “After a tough year, she told grads one guarantee in life is that you’re going to fall, it’s going to hurt & to fight on, your mountain awaits.”

Burnham was the only competitor to give the correct response: Lindsey Vonn, the Olympic ski racer who was injured during a comeback attempt this year.

The answer came to her pretty quickly, Burnham said, as an avid fan of the Olympics.

Despite the win, Burham is still kicking herself about one of her incorrect responses. In a category about birds whose names begin with “c” she responded to a clue about a flightless bird with an odd thing on its head with, “What is a chicken?”

“Which is not correct, it is a cassowary,” she said. “And I know that because I love cassowaries. Because they are this crazy dinosaur bird from Australia that have huge talons on their feet that can rip you open. They are such a cool bird.”

“But in the moment, for some reason, I said chicken.”

Much of the experience was like that, she said. It all moved so fast that she didn’t even have time to notice she was down after the first round — she just focused on the second. Her primary goal was to be in positive territory at the end of the round (contestants in the red don’t get to advance to the final clue).

Burnham watched the episode with friends and loved ones Wednesday at a viewing party at Orono Brewing Company’s flagship taproom.

She’s planning to publish an essay soon about her experiences on her Substack, which she said has been getting a lot of attention over the last 24 hours. Burnham said she can’t share anything about what happens next. But she’s been thinking a lot about the value of the show.

Especially today, she said, a show like “Jeopardy!” that celebrates the breadth of human knowledge and friendly, supportive competition is more important than ever.

“Yes, it’s a game show, but it’s more than that too,” she said. “It’s celebrating the weird, wonderful things about the world.”

Burnham fell short of a second victory on Thursday night’s episode, finishing second to earn a $3,000 consolation prize and bring her total winnings to over $20,000.

Staff Writer Drew Johnson contributed to this story.