NC woman on ‘Jeopardy!’ recounts harrowing encounter with a Great Smoky Mountains bear

A North Carolina woman made a memorable appearance on “Jeopardy!” Thursday night that had nothing to do with how many questions she got right.

Brittany Mae Love, a personal-injury lawyer from Concord, sure got a reaction from host Ken Jennings and the audience when Jennings asked her about one of her hiking adventures.

Love replied that she was on a 23-mile hike in the Great Smoky Mountains when she suddenly came face-to-face with a black bear.

In a split-second, the bear took off running, she said.

Apparently, she told Jennings, bears are afraid of humans as much as we are of them.

“Even bears are ascared of Brittany,” Jennings blurted, prompting laughter from some in the audience.

Love faced an even tougher adversary on the show.

Amy Schneider, an engineering manager from Oakland, California, was on a more than month-long win streak, and she won for the 37th straight day Thursday night.

On Friday night’s show, Schneider tied Matt Amodio’s record 38-win streak.

Love, who didn’t return messages from the Observer Thursday and Friday, ended up $2,800 in the hole.

Second-place finisher Patrick Lackey, a biochemistry professor from New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, took $5,000 home.

Schneider reaped $71,400, putting her total winnings at $1,253,200 and making her a potential Jeopardy Hall of Famer, Jennings said.

“Jeopardy!” averages 9.2 million viewers, making it the most-watched show on broadcast and cable during the 2021-22 season, Entertainment Weekly reported.