On this Sunday I invited two classmates – two! – who at different times participated as contestants on the revered and beloved game show Jeopardy, which was fitting since we just lost the revered and beloved Jeopardy host Alex Trebek. I personally was not a watcher of game shows, I prefer scripted series of varying cultural value, so I was somewhat surprised by the unusually large attendance for this event and the fervent interest in even the most minor details of the Jeopardy experience.
Our conversation of course started with tales of what was happening in our lives as people rolled in. Our guests hailed from outside our typical realm, including our contestant speakers Adrian Goldstein from the Bay Area and Denise Littlejohn from near Los Angeles. we heard about the increased lockdowns in California, and from an attending classmate we heard about Oregon and the increased fires, and we talked a bit about our COVID touched lives.
Then we dove deeply into all things Jeopardy. We talked about the audition process, how Denise went through it twice and in both NY when she lived there and in LA where she is now (dedication!), how hard it was to make it onto the show and to even be accepted to participate was such an honor that the contestants already felt they had won, which helped them to relax and enjoy the experience. The statistics were something like 100,000 try out, it comes down to 4000, and then only 400 make it onto the show every year, which they pointed out were tougher stats than for admittance to the most selective universities. We were told they tape five shows a day, and that Alex was very careful to not interact with the contestants individually except to take pictures so as to maintain fairness, and that he was a charming gentleman throughout. There were Standards and Practices people always there watching to make sure people were fair and their friends and family in the audience were instructed to not make eye contact. They talked about getting mic-ed for the show and how that felt very show-bizzy to them. They talked about the camaraderie among the contestants at the lunch break between tapings, especially since you only got to go to lunch at the midday break if you made it to the next level to the next show. They talked about how many outfits they brought in case they did make it to the next level and that the winners were given a changing room with a star on it! A lot of questions were asked about the buzzer and their pressing techniques and whether they were given time to practice before the show (they were). They said they weren’t required to sign an NDA but were asked to keep questions secret. They were asked about how Alex knew what stories to ask about and they explained he was given five and chose one, but occasionally would ask about the wrong story to the wrong person and there was a code phrase contestants were instructed to use to let him know and move along, “that’s exactly right, Alex” but that he rarely did make a mistake.
We asked them about how they prepared for it. They both cited historic interest in games like Trivial Pursuit and in pub trivia games. We speculated who they thought the new host would be. And we ended by asking them how they celebrated after being on the show, and they both did, with dinners and parties with friends, and whether they remember what drinks they chose to celebrate (they did).
