The newest Jeopardy! champion, Jim Carpenter, won on the May 23 episode, besting three-day champion Brendan Liaw, and he now reveals the shocking way that he prepared for the show. Jim, a retired music professor and conductor from Charlotte, Vermont, won $25,601 in his first game. He emerged victorious over his Jeopardy! competitors, Brendan, who made a brutal Daily Double error and didn't make it to Final Jeopardy! because of a negative score, and David Crockett, who placed second.