Stone Harbor homeowner Joshua Weikert will compete in the 2026 “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions later this year after winning $100,202 and six games on the popular TV game show.
Weikert, a professor at Immaculata University in Pennsylvania, a policy adviser in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and an Army Reserve officer, got 161 answers correct and only 23 wrong before being stumped by the final “Jeopardy!” answer, “Invented by a student in 1824, this system has a total of 64 combinations.”
The question, as game-watchers know now, is “What is Braille?” Weikert, a resident of Collegeville, Pennsylvania, thought it was Morse code.
“I did the math, but I didn’t know how Braille functioned,” he said. “I didn’t realize it was based on six dots. But that’s part of the game. It was a remarkable experience.”
Weikert started his run on March 21, earning $23,601 that first day. Three shows are taped in the morning, followed by two after lunch, so Weikert played five games back-to-back.
“By the last game, I was pretty drained,” he said. “I figured I would win two games, then lunch and watch from the audience, but I caught a couple breaks. It still feels so surreal.”
Now, Weikert said, he knows what he has to work on for the championship tournament, which gets taped in December and airs at the beginning of 2026.
“I know I can study and plug in the gaps where I felt lacking in knowledge,” he said. “It’s a huge weight off my shoulders knowing that I kept getting better and better on the buzzer with each game. That’s something I couldn’t really practice beforehand. But I can work on knowledge gaps.”
According to game statistics, Weikert buzzed in first more than 40% of the time.
He said he, family and friends had a watch party each night while his games aired. “That was exhausting, too,” he said, chuckling, “but it was just so much fun.”
Weikert expects to receive his check in a month or so since his games finished airing March 31, and had pledged to donate 10% of any winnings to a scholarship fund for veterans and their families.
The Weikel Memorial Scholarship Fund, which he helped establish in memory of his friend, Jarrad Weikel, U.S. Marine Corps, provides financial assistance to those who have served in the Armed Forces and their loved ones as they pursue higher education degrees in the medical, health and life sciences fields.
“If anyone wants to join me in donating, that would be great,” he said.
As for how Weikert plans to spend his winnings, he isn’t sure. “We have a few home projects we want to get done, and I’ve been talking about getting a new car, so I’m sure we’ll figure it out,” he said. “It was a really gratifying experience, and everyone, the crew and contestants, were just so great. We’ll see what happens in the tournament later this year.”
Contact the reporter, Karen Knight, at kknight@cmcherald.com.
