Where do you see yourself in ten years?
In ten years, I hope to see myself, uh, writing professionally, whatever that means in ten years. Uh, y'know, hopefully traveling a lot, and potentially teaching. But, y'know, I'll take what I can get in the near interim.
How did you prepare for the show?
I--uh, to prepare for the show today, I, uh, watched Jeopardy! every night. I tried to buzz in with a ball-point pen--I don't know if that's the same way it works on the show. And, y'know, just tried to keep up my normal reading. I figured, I'm not going to become an expert on anything, but I can brush up a little bit.
What's more difficult, the pressure of Jeopardy! or final exams?
I think the cumul--um, the cumulative effect of, uh, s--cramming for final exams is worse, because that has to happen eight times over the college career. This is just one and I'm done, and I got a free trip out of it.
How did you react when you were selcted to be on the Jeopardy! College Championship?
Uh, when I found out, I actually--when I found out I was going to be on the College Championship, I actually had mono, so my first reaction was to go to bed and take a nap, but when I found out, I was--when I woke up, I was ecstatic. I couldn't believe it. |
2010-A College Championship wildcard semifinalist: $10,000.
Hometown: Farmington, Connecticut.
Daniel D'Addario is a staff writer for the New York Observer. His writing has been featured in Newsweek and The Daily Beast, and his piece highlighting the J! Archive and Jeopardy! fandom appeared in Slate.
Dan D'Addario Blog Entry 3
February 11, 2010
Thankfully for me, I ended my quarter-final game in third place of the four wild-card spots so far – and that was good enough to survive further in the tournament. I headed home to the hotel, but was still a bit shaken by my close call the day before and found myself a beat behind all day, up to and including my game, unfortunately!
The first category of my semi-final game happened to be my favorite trivia topic of all time – Oscar winners – and when Ryan beat me to the buzzer four of five times, I knew my game was essentially over. I tried to buzz in as much as I could, whether I knew or not, just to keep up the rhythm, but my acuity had fallen off. Remember when I said the practice round made the signaling device seem easy? The practice round lied!
That said, this experience was phenomenal, and I was really happy to watch three individuals I’d competed against play in a great final. My friends were all very excited to see me on TV, and I’m pleased I have something in my bank account that I will be able to use on, hopefully, a bit of travel, as well as a bit of a safety net for after graduation. But the experience of playing a game I’ve loved my whole life is every bit as valuable.
Dan D'Addario Blog Entry 2
February 5, 2010
I landed in California in midday Sunday and spent a little time over the next day and a half doing touristy things – I visited the Getty in Malibu (too bad Greek and Roman art wasn’t a category!) and took a tour of Hollywood. I’d never seen any of this, and loved the steep hills and palm trees of Southern California. I was going to miss the free time on Tuesday, when I had to meet the other contestants at 7:30am in the lobby of our hotel. My fellow contestants – all, like me, wearing their college sweatshirts – seemed very nice and all very intelligent. As I’m pretty quiet when I meet new people, I sat back and listened as they discussed their favorite films and the relative merits of Buffy vs. Twilight. It was really exciting to put faces to the people I’d be competing against on Jeopardy!, but as they were all so likable and intelligent, I knew that I wouldn’t be interested in competing against them – simply against myself.
My first impression of our practice round was that the signaling button was very easy to use. This wasn’t an impression that would last! But as we practiced with some purposefully easy questions, I found the signaling button to be a self-explanatory device – and was more concerned, in fact, with making my name legible! (My handwriting has always been astoundingly poor.) The promos we had to do – including shouting “What is, ‘frat parties’?” and the like – felt pretty silly, but it’s pretty rare I have to recite lines on camera, so I could put up with it this one time.
I was the fourth show to tape from the first round, so I had to wait around all day in the green room. It wasn’t too bad at all, although we couldn’t leave the room; we watched two films, and I drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of snacks (hey, it was on Sony’s dime!). Finally, it was our call time, and I was both excited to hear about my competition – Nick and Surya had seemed, insofar as anyone can “seem” like such a nebulous thing, like great competitors as well as very smart – and thrilled to see my father and boyfriend in the audience. Of course, I couldn’t communicate with them, but it was good to see them all the same!
My game was very exciting – as I was in something of a “zone” throughout, I can’t say how I felt at any given moment, but it felt great to know that I led when the show took breaks for commercial and when we went into Final Jeopardy! I didn’t really have any strategy when it came to choosing categories – but I knew I was on a hot streak with the “Collegiate Rhyme Time” category and didn’t want to leave it! Another stroke of luck was hitting a Daily Double late in the game and getting a question about my alma mater – I’ve gotten coffee at the journalism school that question mentions!
My lack of a strategy came to bite me, though, when it came time for a wagering strategy for Final Jeopardy! I didn’t know what the wild-card cutoff would be, and for some reason decided that I needed around $22,000 to guarantee a spot in the semifinals. I ended my wager in -16 because that’s my lucky number, but it wasn’t lucky enough – I had no idea of the correct response, while both my opponents had the answer. I went from first to third after my overzealous wager. Alex was gracious throughout the show – it was great meeting someone I’ve been watching since my young childhood and to see how crisp and efficient he is, just like he seems when you watch him at home.
Dan D'Addario Blog Entry 1
February 2, 2010
My name is Daniel D’Addario and I’m a senior at Columbia University, majoring in American studies and English. Even from when I was very young I was very interested in Jeopardy! – when my first grade teacher asked what was significant about the number thirteen, I replied that it was the first year of eligibility for the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament. I’ve always loved trivia and reading up on a variety of topics. My favorite trivia topics are cinema (I have a special weakness for the Oscars) and literature. At Columbia, I’ve enjoyed channeling my interests into my academic work: my thesis is to be on the rise of paranoid thriller films in the 1970s as a parallel to the political climate under President Nixon. I’ve been able to indulge my interests, too, in my extracurricular pursuits – I’ve enjoyed serving as the managing editor for the Columbia Political Review and a columnist for the Columbia Daily Spectator, as well as interning for places like Time, Newsweek, and Random House and teaching English at a summer preparatory school in Massachusetts. I’d love to be a journalist after college – New York provides such great opportunities to get involved in publishing and writing.
Over the summer I remembered that the test was coming up – I’d taken it the year before, too. I took it very casually – I certainly didn’t prepare beyond drinking a big cup of coffee beforehand! The questions moved so quickly that I had to go with my first instinct – there was hardly time to second-guess. I suppose my instincts led me in the right direction, though I doubted at the time that I’d ever hear back.
I was thrilled to get the opportunity to audition but angry at myself that I’d chosen Boston as my audition city and didn’t have a place to stay overnight before my 9am appointment. I decided to take the last Amtrak train out of New York – leaving at 3am – in order to get to Boston on time. Thankfully, I’d slept during the day the day before, so I felt like my 9am appointment was in the middle of the day; I’ve never been so energetic at that hour in four years of college! The audition was a lot of fun – I especially enjoyed using a buzzer, which I know is one of the biggest challenges of Jeopardy!
I got the call from Jeopardy! on a Thursday when I was working on a paper in my dorm room. I’d been pretty worn out all that day, but I immediately perked up when I realized that the producer was asking me for my information not simply to check records but to make sure I was eligible, and the right Dan D’Addario. I immediately told my suitemates and my best friend, who knows my love of trivia better than anyone else – she used to ask me to name the Best Supporting Actress winners, or the Presidents, all in order. I have been watching Jeopardy! every night to prepare, and though I have some topics I feel less secure in, I haven’t been boning up on any specific subject in particular – just keeping up my general knowledge by reading books and the news on a frequent basis. See you on the air! |
