Former Teen Jeopardy! winner reflects on bullying and stalking she faced after win

Former Teen Jeopardy! champion Claire Sattler has reflected on the bullying and harassment that she faced after finding herself the subject of national attention following the 2018 tournament.

Sattler, who is now a student at Yale University, recalled the difficult experience in a video posted to TikTok, where she goes by the username @clairesat, earlier this month.

“What was it like being on Teen Jeopardy!?” the text caption on the clip reads, showing a photo of the then-16 year old posing with late Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek.

The video, set to a version of Pompeii by Bastille that swaps the lyrics for “emotional damage,” then proceeded to show the “stalking” and harassment that Sattler was subjected to during and after her time on the show.

According to one screenshot of a notification about her Google Plus profile, a ​​now-defunct social network that was owned and operated by Google, Sattler had “stalkers,” as she showed a notification that she had been followed by a man named David.

Sattler also recalled how she’d experienced “nationwide cyberbullying” as a result of her time on the game show, with the video including a clip of her crying during an interview with NBC2.

“Being accused of having sex with a 79 year old man (as a 16 year old) for the answers,” the video continued, showing another photo of Sattler and Trebek posing on the set of Jeopardy!

Sattler concluded the video on a lighter note with a photo of herself and the other Teen Tournament contestants “dabbing,” which she captioned with the text: “This.”

The clip, which has been viewed more than 189,000 times, has prompted sympathetic responses from viewers, with one person writing: “So sorry this had to happen to you, I watched your original appearances and you were such a great player. F’n sucks that people treat you this way.”

Another said: “That f**king sucks. People are the worst. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Others shared their own experiences with bullying as a result of their time on TV, with someone else writing: “Hey! I was on the Wheel at 19 years old. I thought my trolls were bad, sorry you went through that.”

This is not the first time Sattler has opened up about the negative aspects of national recognition, as she previously revealed that she was being targeted by cyberbullies while the show was airing.

“Twitter very much decided I was the villain of the finals for some reason other than the fact that I talk a lot,” Sattler told Naples News in 2018, adding that she was “more nervous about the internet’s reaction” than winning because “Twitter decided it didn’t like me very much”.

While Sattler, who won the $100,000 grand prize, didn’t have a positive experience with the viewers of the show, she only has good things to say about the show’s longtime host.

In response to a comment from a viewer who asked whether Trebek was “as nice as I always hoped he was,” Sattler said: “He was! He was so funny and actually being on set was awesome. The aftermath, well, that was another story.”

“You know it’s bad when the dabbing is the least traumatising thing she said,” someone else added.

The Independent has contacted Sattler for comment.