| Meet Ken's sixth Jeopardy victim |
I grew up in a family who liked to learn things just for the sake of knowing them. We didn’t care if the knowledge would ever be of any practical use, which may explain why one of my brothers is a history professor and I’m a lawyer. One of the things we did was watch Jeopardy! (My parents, ages 86 and 82, still watch it faithfully every day. Even though I don’t watch Jeopardy! much any more—something called “work” gets in the way—I still dreamed of someday trying out and being chosen for the show. My chance to put the dream to the test came in March 2003 when the Jeopardy! contestant challenge came to Peabody Place. I walked over during my lunch hour and found myself at the end of a line that stretched around the block. I almost left, but decided that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Luckily, the line moved fairly quickly, and I met some interesting people (including Rufus Thomas’ son). An hour later, I reached the end of the line where I was handed a sheet with 10 questions to answer. I finished quickly, handed my sheet to one of the contestant coordinators, and waiting for him to grade it. Insider’s Tip #1: You never find out what the passing grade is. All I know is that I was handed a letter and told to come back the following day to take a second test. On Day 2, I went to the Peabody and found myself in a group of 68 people (out of the initial 1,000 or so who had lined up the previous day). One of them was the woman I had roomed with on a trip to Israel and Egypt a few years ago. She was at the head of the line the day before so we had not seen each other. Day 2 consisted of, first, a pep talk and Q&A session by Maggie, who is a cross between Janis Joplin and Richard Simmons, and the completion of some information about yourself. Insider’s Tip #2: The hardest part of the whole experience is trying to think of interesting things to say about yourself. Then came the questions, 50 in all, on a variety of subjects, delivered by Alex via video projector and screen. Our sheets were collected and graded and, again, the passing grade was never revealed. Mine was one of 28 names called as having survived this second test. We played a brief practice game and Maggie “chatted” with us to see, I guess, if we had sufficient personality to be on the show. We were then excused with the caveat that our names would be put in a file for 12-15 months, during which time we might be called to appear on the show. I went home, excited that I had made it to the finals, never expecting to get called to appear on the show. That feeling was reinforced when the year passed, and I received no call. Then, at the end of January 2004, I received a call from Glenn, another of the contestant coordinators, who advised me that they wanted me to come to LA (OK, Culver City) for a taping at Sony Pictures Studio on February 25. Suddenly I was faced with a dilemma: Should I treat this as an adventure or make a real effort to study and win? I decided on a “middle road,” at first telling people that my goal was to have enough money to play Final Jeopardy!, but later admitting that I would like to won at least one game. I ordered some study books from Amazon.com and began to “bone up” on lots of truly unimportant facts. Insider’s Tip #3: You never know how many people watch a TV show until you tell that that you’re going to appear on it. On the day of the taping, I, along with several other contestants who were staying at the same hotel, rode the shuttle to Sony Pictures Studio, taking with us a couple of changes of clothes in case we won. We waited outside, with garment bags in hand, for Glenn to arrive and usher us into the inner sanctum. For each day of taping, there are 12 contestants plus the returning champion. Five shows are taped in a day, which means two contestants will not appear and must return the following day. We were driven back to the set where Jeopardy is taped and ushered into the contestants’ quarters. We sat at a table while Maggie, a/k/a Janis/Richard, went over the rules and we filled out more paperwork, searing that neither we nor our immediate families nor anyone we had ever met, was an employee of Jeopardy! or Sony Pictures Studio. We also had to practice our “hometown hellos,” promotional spots that are taped for use by your local TV station. Barry, the make-up artist (my favorite person!), made sure we wouldn’t be washed out on camera, and then we were taken to the studio to be instructed on camera placement and how to write our name on the monitor (I’m not kidding!), and to play a brief practice game. Insider’s Tip #4: It’s all about the buzzer. White “Christmas Tree” lights (which you can’t see at home) surround the left and underneath sides of the game board. They flash when Alex finishes reading the question, and which is your cue that your buzzer is activated. If you ring in too early, your buzzer is frozen out for a split second; you are told to keep pressing the buzzer until Alex calls the name of the person who rang in first. I was having trouble getting the rhythm of the buzzer in practice. It was a bad omen of things to come. The returning champion, a 29-year-old software engineer from Salt Lake City, had won three times the day before, amassing over $95,000 in winnings. The first chumps, er, contestants to come up against him were the two people who had not been chosen the day before. The were quickly eliminated. We remaining contestants kept hoping and praying that the champion would be beaten before it was our turn to face him. The next two contestants, chosen at random by (I’m not making this up) Maggie drawing their names from a hat, also went down to defeat (although Paula from Ohio had a chance to win if she had gotten the Final Jeopardy! answer correct. Unfortunately for me, she did not. Kevin from Atlanta and I were the next to face the champ and we fared no better. Not only was Ken (the champ) fast on the buzzer, he rarely missed an answer. At the end of the first round, he had $12,000 and Kevin and I each had $2,000. The frustrating part was that I knew the answers too, but couldn’t ring in fast enough (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!). The next round was no better. I was trying so hard to ring in that a couple of times when Alex called on me, I couldn’t remember the clue. (You try reading the questions, listening to Alex, and waiting for the lights to come on—it’s not as easy as it appears!) The good news is that I was in the black so I got to play Final Jeopardy! which was a ridiculously easy question. (Category: Fictional Characters. Answer: In the first draft of this novel, Charles Dickens called this character Little Freddie.) We all got it right, which left Ken with over $180,000 in winnings. For third place, I will receive $1,000 (no more parting gifts), to be sent to me within 120 days… which reminds me, I haven’t received my money yet. Anyone know a good lawyer? |