Harvey Silikovitz Battled Health Challenges Before Triumphing on 'Jeopardy!'
“I wouldn’t recommend that as a preparation strategy for doing well on the show."
Published March 12 2025, 9:12 a.m. ET
Winners on the trivia game show Jeopardy! come from all walks of life. They bring home wins big and small, coming from different kinds of families and career backgrounds that give them the push they need to triumph.
One Jeopardy! winner, Harvey Silikovitz, made it to the top by overcoming a number of major challenges related to health and to a phone tag debacle that nearly ended his Jeopardy! dreams before they began.
Here's what we know about the health struggles that Harvey overcame to bring home the big win and how he made it to the top.
Harvey Silikovitz on 'Jeopardy!' struggled with health and luck before he became a winner.
Winning a high-stakes and high-profile trivia contest like Jeopardy! requires players to be at the top of their game. However, some players overcome more than others to make it happen. Case in point: Harvey Silikovitz.
The big Jeopardy! winner came to the stage with a pretty heartwarming story, and it all ties into health struggles that he has been battling for years.
Harvey is an attorney who identifies himself as a "worldwide karaoke singer." On YouTube, he travels the world. In one video, he belts out some tunes in a taxi.
But behind Harvey's quick mind and inquisitive nature, he has been battling Parkinson's. The karaoke star shared on Jeopardy! that he was diagnosed in 2019, the same year he missed a voicemail from a Jeopardy! producer and nearly ended his run on the show before it started.
Yet he didn't give up on what he said was a life-long dream. Harvey shared that living with Parkinson's helped prepare him for his Jeopardy! run, telling the Jeopardy! audience, “I wouldn’t recommend that as a preparation strategy for doing well on the show. But after living with Parkinson’s for five and a half years, it’s no longer just about wanting to do well for myself. I would like to give hope and inspiration to the people who are living with chronic illnesses."
Harvey's been living with Parkinson's for years, but that didn't stop him from competing and winning.
According to the Parkinson's Foundation, early signs of the progressive disease can include tremors, dizziness, trouble sleeping, and movement difficulties, among other symptoms.
Yet despite bringing those challenges with him to the stage, Harvey brought home an impressive $23,200.
His triumph came against Laura Faddah, an eight-time winner who was angling for her ninth win. And Laura seemed untouchable. Until Harvey, that is.
According to TVInsider, despite Laura's momentum, Harvey took the lead early in the first half of the game, going into the first commercial break an impressive $6,100 over Laura.
The second round was much the same as the first for Harvey, and he answered an impressive 18 questions right, totaling up nearly $37,000 before the end.
However, the wrong answer and a $13,200 wager brought his final total down to that $23,200 and a big win for the night.
While Harvey isn't the biggest winner or the one with the longest-running record yet, his perseverance in overcoming both major health struggles and a little bit of phone tag means that the March 2025 win was all the sweeter.
Not only has he won for himself, but he has also shown those battling Parkinson's that your dreams are still within reach with a little hard work, a lot of knowledge, and some answered phone calls.