This blog series is about my experience as a contestant on the quiz show, Jeopardy! I originally wrote it to share with friends and family, but a few pointed out that other fans may like to read it. There are many fantastic blogs and articles about what it’s like to be a Jeopardy! contestant, how to get on the show, and what it’s like behind the scenes. This is what I experienced. I hope that fans of the show will find it entertaining, while aspiring Jeopardy! contestants will find it insightful as they continue their journey towards becoming a contestant.
I’ve been a fan of the quiz show Jeopardy! for as long as I can remember. Truly, I cannot recall a time during my childhood when my family didn’t gather around our television set—not every night, but at least on a somewhat regular basis—and spend a half-hour with Alex Trebex and then, immediately following, with Pat Sajak and Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune. My mother and I always preferred the trivia format of Jeopardy! while my father and older sister enjoyed Wheel of Fortune. My sister, in particular, was always strikingly proficient at playing Wheel, often shouting out the correct answer long before any of the contestants on stage. My older brother didn’t particularly care for either, so he’d often join the four of us on the couch and read a magazine or listen to his Sony Walkman.
For me, Jeopardy! always seemed to be the pinnacle of intellectual achievement. Surely they wouldn’t allow anyone but the brightest minds of our age to grace our television sets each evening and compete in such a fierce battle of knowledge, would they? As I grew older, of course, I realized that this was not the case. But those early memories of watching Alex Trebek rapidly spew forth facts and figures from a seemingly endless array of topics was so captivating that it left an indelible mark on my childhood and early adulthood. I’d always been a voracious reader, and when I was between novels—usually of the science fiction and fantasy variety—I would often pull out one of the books from my family’s 1986 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia, each volume resplendent in its brown and tan leather cover with gilded lettering. I’d peruse through the pages, hoping to absorb whatever information I could. For I dreamed that one day, somehow, I would have the opportunity to appear as a contestant on my favorite quiz show.
In late 2020, that dream came true.
The Online Test
I had been actively trying to become a contestant on Jeopardy! for about 20 years. And the road to Jeopardy! begins the same for everyone, with an initial test of general trivia knowledge. Prior to the internet, this was done with an in-person written exam, but that’s long been replaced by an online version. For quite a long time, these online tests were scheduled to occur on a single planned date and time (or a block of available dates and times). Prospective contestants would register for the test, then make sure they were near their computer and that there were no issues with their internet connection. Then they would take the test along with countless others over the world wide web.
As a teenager, I applied for the show’s annual Teen Tournament, but never made it. Then, during my university years, I applied for the show’s annual College Tournament. Once again, that was a dead end. Since those days of undergraduate study, I’ve taken nearly every single online test that has been made available (usually only one or two a year) in an effort to get on the main program. Sometime in 2020, Jeopardy! revised its online testing program so that it could be accessed and taken anytime. Prospective contestants simply needed to register, and then they would be able to take the first step in their Jeopardy! journey at their leisure, anytime. This is still the case today. Immediately prior to this change, however, in the early months of 2020, there was one final scheduled test, open to all registrants.
I took that test. Like the previous others I had taken, it consisted of 50 clues, each one’s emergence preceded by the category to which it belonged. You had to type in your response before a 15-second timer ran out. As with each online test I took over the years, this one flew by in a blur. The test is a short and intense experience that demands a powerful degree of focus, and it rewards the ability to shake off a missed or uncertain response in order to prepare for the next category and clue. When it was all over, out of the 50 clues, I could only remember the contents of a handful of them! Now, as I write this, I can only remember one—the very first one, which I was quite confident in knowing I’d gotten correct. But despite this early confidence booster, I walked away feeling a bit underwhelmed by my overall results. As always, though, I carried a precious spark of hope that maybe, just maybe, this would be the time where I’d move on to the next step.
The Next Steps
What is that next step, you ask? Well, the Jeopardy! team never reveals the answers to the test, so you don’t know precisely how you scored. But if you score high enough on the test, the prompts inform you, then you’ll be contacted by the Jeopardy! team. There are many written accounts available to read elsewhere online about what would happen next in the pre-COVID era: If you scored high enough on the online test, you’d be invited to participate in an in-person session with several other potential candidates (usually at a hotel conference room or other community space in your region). You’d all take a written test similar to the online version so that the contestant coordinators could confirm your level of trivia knowledge and make sure you didn’t cheat on the initial online exam. Then you’d participate in a brief personality interview and a mock game. This process would allow the Jeopardy! team to evaluate your ability to play the game on-camera with the desired level of enthusiasm, consistency, and stage presence. For quite a long time, it had been their tried and true method for developing the optimal candidate pool.
Shortly after my online test at the beginning of 2020, however, the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Would the show halt production? I wondered. Would the recent online test results be nullified? How would the show move forward in an age of social distancing, if at all?
Well, many communities around the world have shown incredible perseverance amidst the adversity of the global pandemic, and that’s true of Jeopardy!’s production team. In the months that followed a brief shutdown in the spring of 2020, reports emerged that the production team had restarted the interviews and simulated games for prospective contestants who had made it past the initial online testing phase—all over virtual meeting platforms. Upon hearing this news in the summer of 2020, my precious spark of hope that nearly went extinguished grew ever so slightly. My dream was still alive.
Zoom, Zoom
In late July, I was using my phone to scan my email inbox, and a certain subject line made my heart skip a beat. I glimpsed the words, “Jeopardy!” and “Audition,” and I nearly dropped my phone to the floor! I read the email in its entirety, which informed me that I had “successfully passed the online test,” and that I was invited to a “follow-up audition” with the Jeopardy! crew via a virtual Zoom meeting. After years of taking the online tests and clinging to what many people told me was a pipe dream, I had finally made it to the next step.
The email implored me to register for this next step by selecting my preferred date and time from a short list of available slots that would occur over the coming week. I’d be partaking in another online exam, only this time under the watchful gaze of some Jeopardy! staff members via Zoom. This second online test would take the place of the in-person written exam employed by the production team prior to the pandemic.
About a week later, my test date arrived. I logged on to Zoom and joined about a dozen friendly faces, all of whom were there for the same reason as me. A handful of people from the Jeopardy! contestant search team were also there, and they gave us a brief introduction and then activated the quiz, which followed the same format as the original online test. When it was all over, the Jeopardy! team members informed us that, like the previous test, results would not be shared. But if we scored well enough, we’d be moved further along in the process towards becoming part of the contestant pool and would be contacted at a later date. I cannot recall a single clue from that “in-person” test, but I do remember feeling pleasantly confident in my performance. Happily, I didn’t have to wait long for the… er, next next step.
The New ‘In-Person’
There are other accounts of these next steps which you can find online. Many local television news affiliates have produced segments on them, including several in the past year that highlight the show’s efforts to recruit contestants amidst the challenges of a pandemic. You can find some of them on YouTube, and what you’ll see is the experience I went through. But here’s how it all felt from my perspective.
The day after the “in-person” test conducted via Zoom, I received another email from the Jeopardy! staff informing me that I had “passed” the test, and that they’d soon be reaching out with more information about the next step in the process, an “audition.” It turns out that this third step would consist of an “in-person” interview and the opportunity to participate in a mock game—both virtually over Zoom—which used to be bundled together in one sitting with the “in-person” test prior to the pandemic. I followed a link in the email to sign-up for another preferred date and time, and then started cramming—but it wasn’t additional trivia knowledge I was after.
I sought out as many first-hand accounts from former contestants as I possibly could, trying to glean whatever information was available about the mock game and the interview process, and how to best present myself. The general consensus was that the mock game wasn’t a test of your trivia knowledge (that, theoretically, would have already been established by the two exams you’d already taken), but rather a chance for the staff to view your demeanor, public speaking ability, and potential stage presence. The interview process would go hand-in-hand with that, I learned. Each candidate would be asked a question or two and engage in a brief conversation with a staff member, all to help them further determine your ability to speak proficiently on camera and present yourself in a likeable and engaging manner.
My Interview & Mock Game
When the day of the audition arrived near the end of August, I put on my finest suit and sat down in front of my computer. The Zoom meeting started and I was greeted by the same group of Jeopardy! team members that conducted the “in-person” exam. There were also five prospective contestants, besides me. We’d be separated into two groups of three individuals, we were told, and the first group would play a simulated game (at least, about half a round of traditional Jeopardy! play—around 15 questions). Then, each of the three individuals would be asked an interview question and have a quick conversation with one of the team members. The process would then repeat for the next group of three (everyone was allowed to hang out to watch both games and all of the interviews).
I was placed into the first group, and the mock game got underway. We’d been asked to participate as if we were actually on the show: keep the game moving quickly and smoothly; say the category name (or a keyword from the category name) followed by the dollar amount; avoid long pauses in speech and saying things like “uh” and “um”; and, of course, answer in the form of a question. The mock game wrapped up in only a few minutes and we got right into the interview portion. I was the second person to be interviewed, and was asked about my profession. I made sure to speak clearly, sound friendly, and be engaging. I also did my best to let my enthusiasm for the show come out, something that was recommended in many of the blogs I’d read from former contestants. The producers of the show want friendly, excited, and likeable contestants, after all. After my interview, I sat back and relaxed, and watched the second group play their mock game and answer their interview questions.
When it was over, we were told that we were all officially inside the pool of possible contestants, and that we may or may not be contacted over the next 18 months to appear on the show. If we weren’t invited to appear on the show during that time, we’d be allowed to start the process anew by taking the initial online test again. After a chorus of cheerful goodbyes from the other participants, I exited the Zoom meeting. Once again, it was time to wait.
A few months later, tragedy struck. And then my phone rang.
Click here to read Part 2—The Invitation.
Follow me on Twitter—@mdouglaswhite.
