A familiar face from the Jeopardy! podium has died. Dr. Courtney Shah, a seven-time champion who appeared on the quiz show in 2021 and later in its 2022 "Tournament of Champions," died on Wednesday at age 52 at home after being diagnosed with brain cancer earlier this year, her family said, per E! News. A history professor at Lower Columbia College in Washington state, Shah earned more than $120,000 across her appearances.
"We loved her in this world, and we loved her out of this world, and we'll go on loving her," daughter Maya Shah wrote in an online update to supporters. Maya first revealed the diagnosis in February, noting that Shah had developed numbness and weakness on the left side of her face. By March, Maya said the treatment wasn't working and that her mother had chosen to stop radiation and chemotherapy and enter hospice care, a decision the family backed.
In her final months, Shah—who attended Duke and then went on to the University of Houston for her PhD, per Entertainment Tonight—found comfort in family time, college basketball (she rooted for Duke, of course), and still calling out Jeopardy! responses faster than anyone else in the room. "I really never imagined I would get here," she said in 2021 of her run on the show. A Jeopardy! spokesperson said in a statement to USA Today that "we are deeply saddened" by Shah's death, calling her a "formidable competitor."
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