Season 25 1-time champion: $25,500 + $2,000.
Daniel Stauss - A Workers Comp Claims Examiner
Seattle, Washington
April 7, 2009
I had completely given up all hope of appearing on Jeopardy! when I got the call two weeks before Christmas. I had gone through the in-person audition in October 2007, and figured that it just wasn’t my turn. The live audition was great fun. I remember answering three questions during my turn in the mock game; the answers were “Alfred Kinsey”, “peyote” and “quadraphonic”. Maggie, the loud, brash and incredibly awesome contestant coordinator joked about my being the “sex, drugs and rock & roll guy”.
Then one ordinary day at work, Glenn, another of the contestant coordinators at Jeopardy!, called to invite me to appear on the show. I have no idea how big a fool I made myself on the phone, because the whole call is a complete blur. I called my wife and told her, then went and asked my boss for the day off.
At the studio, we filed into the green room for make-up and an epic pre-rehearsal briefing from Robert and Maggie, and permit me to wax rhapsodic about the INCREDIBLE contestant coordinator staff at Jeopardy! Robert, Maggie, Glenn and Tony are outstanding at easing the tension of a television appearance, and they are tireless in ensuring that the contestants have a wonderful time. I cannot thank them enough for making the whole experience as fantastic as it was.
Sitting in the stands waiting to compete and watching the earlier tapings, I was struck by how easy Alex Trebek makes hosting Jeopardy! seem. He was poised and professional throughout the day.
Game Time: You have no idea what it feels like to draw a complete blank on a Daily Double until you actually draw a complete blank on a Daily Double. Wow…just wow. In my defense, I focused on the wrong part of the question and the only answer I could think of was so bad I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. I redeemed myself on Final Jeopardy! when the answer popped into my head out of nowhere. The thrill of winning on Jeopardy! is something I will never forget.
The whole experience of appearing on Jeopardy! was so much better than I imagined, and I’ve been imagining it since I was 10 years old watching Frank Spangenberg’s giant moustache make his amazing run as Champion. Again, all the credit goes to the amazing contestant coordinators, whose smiles, jokes, and welcome bottles of water during commercial breaks made the day wonderful. Thank you to the whole crew (especially the make-up artists who earned their paychecks on my shiny forehead) for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. |
