Delco Man Wins Big In 'Jeopardy!' Season 35 Premier

Philadelphia-area residents seem to pop up on the long-running gameshow "Jeopardy!" relatively often. Folks from Berwyn, Malvern, and even a Swarthmore student have made appearances in the recent past. And now a Delaware County man is holding strong in the start of the show's 35th season.

Rick Terpstra, of Havertown, emerged the victor in Monday's game, giving him his third Jeopardy! win ever, as he closed out season 34 with two wins and $38,900 in prize money.

Terpstra, an English teacher at Ridley High School, won an additional $21,100 Monday, giving him a three-day total of $60,000, after blazing past competitors Isaac Loeb and Caitlin Sok.

Terpstra told the Delaware County Daily Times that he applied to be on the show back in 2016 and learned he made it to the big show in March 2018.

"We were told that about 80,000 people take the online test, about 3,000 of those get called for the auditions, and about 400 are tapped to appear on the show each year," Terpstra told the outlet. "This was my fourth time getting called to audition. It’s not uncommon for people to audition multiple times before getting on the show."

His fourth game will air at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ABC, so tune in to root him on.

Image via YouTube screenshot