"The 11-year-old wasn't really kidding when he said he wanted to be a scientist. The 20-year-old is now a physics major. A junior at Northwestern University, here is..."
2008 Kids Week Reunion player (2008-09-18).
1999 Back-to-School Week player (1999-09-08).
Almost ten years after the fact, I can't remember the date, but I definitely remember the excitement of being a ten-year-old kid trying out for Jeopardy! At the time, producers intended to put together a parent/child-style series of shows in which each would compete individually for one round of Jeopardy! followed by a collaborative Final Jeopardy! The lead up to this time couldn't have been more fitting for me and my dad. At the time, his job allowed him extended periods of uninterrupted TV watching in the middle of the day, making over-the-phone games between us a daily occurrence. Upon hearing of an audition, I registered us online and waited intently for any kind of follow-up. A few weeks later, this came in the form of an invitation to a Chicago-area hotel to try out. Suddenly, our over-the-phone games started to feel more important.
Sitting in the hotel conference room, I felt pretty good about the "in person" audition; I thought I did well on the written test (minus "NaCl is the chemical formula for what household ingredient?" which for some reason still sticks out in my mind). My dad thought he did all right (they herded the parents into a separate room for their written exam, so the kids didn't see their test), and we did pretty well together in the mock game. The one thought that still sticks out in my mind from this was a question posed during the adult game which stumped all three auditioning parents; something about a best-selling male country music artist. Knowing nothing about country western, but having a knack for retaining names and guessing, I raised my hand with the right answer. Again, as a young kid, a lot of strange things jump out as memorable.
Months passed after the audition and I somewhat forgot about the show until the day I got the word I was selected. As my dad rushed me out the door for school that morning, he noticed that FedEx had tried unsuccessfully to deliver a package to our door. I went off to school without a second thought about this, but when I got home, the phone rang with both of parents on the other line in a conference call. "You're in big trouble... you got on Jeopardy!" I remember jumping up and down, almost crying from happiness, and then poking fun at my dad about the new format the producers settled on; a simple kids tournament with no parental involvement because the kids "impressed" them.
A local kid getting on Jeopardy! became a regional news item in Illinois that summer as I was interviewed by radio stations, local news networks, and featured in a few big newspapers (the opening line was usually something like, "Local kid plans to play video games, read a few books... and go on Jeopardy! this summer"). The attention was fun for me at the time, but looking back, the sizable collection of newspaper clippings and recorded broadcasts remain my favorite part of this Jeopardy! preparation. It goes without saying that lost in all this media coverage was any kind of studying for the show. While I reviewed a few world capitals and a few other tidbits, the difficulty of the audition test
somewhat liberated me from feeling as if I had to memorize the names of all the U.S. Presidents or brush up on Greek mythology.
I have only hazy memories of arriving at the Jeopardy! studio, but was a bit surprised to learn that it would be something like four hours before we got to taping our shows. Oh, and the makeup; I didn't like having to wear makeup. The same haziness applies to my interactions with the other contestants. While I remember happily meeting and talking to all of my fellow "Back to School"-ers, I think I was still too awestruck to carry on anything more significant than "this place is so cool!" and remarking on commonalities in school and athletic activities. Alex Trebek coming in before the first show taped to say "hello" was also pretty exciting for little me (another strange thing that still sticks in my mind, I was really worried about not being polite enough and definitely called him "Mr. Trebek" an excessive number of times). We were told the order of our show recording and were escorted into the audience area to watch the episodes being filmed before ours.
When my name was called to come out after the first two tapings, a few things struck me as curious. First off, despite how large and elaborate the Jeopardy! set always looked to me on TV, it was actually quite small with the video screen being easily readable across the way. Further, I never knew of the "scoreboard" and "buzz-in lights" that appear off camera as visual cues of the players' standings and answer window, respectively. Regardless, when I heard my name read by Johnny Gilbert, my only concern was not falling off of the little wooden platforms producers put behind our lecterns to ensure that we could see over the top.
There's a lot of truth to the statement I've heard from other contestants about how the game seems to fly by. I honestly don't remember what went through my mind as my game went on, though I remember mastering my buzz-in method just before the end of the first Jeopardy! Round. With questions written for little kids, our Jeopardy! shows seemed to be more a matter of dexterity than of possessing an unreasonable wealth of obscure trivia (not that I'm complaining). Going into Double Jeopardy! in third place, my eyes lit up upon seeing COMPUTERS as a category. Going against the earlier suggestion of producers to begin with small values (along with not "skipping around" the board too much), I called out for the $1000 COMPUTERS question. And then the $800... and $600... etc... As someone who, to this day, can't live without my PC, sweeping that category continues to give me a sense of pride.
Going into final Jeopardy!, I recall a wagering strategy that I'm surprised I realized at my age. With something like $5000 more than my nearest opponent, I bet enough to ensure a first place win with a correct response (along with what I thought was a sure-fire amount to earn an extra $5000 as the week's biggest winner) while a wrong response, at worst, could never place me below second place. Oh, also memorable to me was the paper and pen we were instructed to write our response on in the unlikely event that our touch screens would fail. Oh, and we were told that if there was an error with the video screen as the question was being revealed, we were to turn around and look away to avoid getting a glimpse of anything capable of compromising the result. Being indifferent to the HOLIDAY QUOTES category, I made my big bet, but realized I had lost it once the question was shown to us. I'd never read "A Christmas Carol" and simply wrote the name of the first Dickens novel that came to mind. My strategy worked for me, though, as I came in second, and quickly turned to my fellow contestant on the right to clap and congratulate her. To this day, I just recall being calm and not feeling sad about coming in second for my game. Having heard the consolation prize of two computers for the second place finisher, though, this probably shouldn't be too surprising. |
