I'm officially in the Jeopardy contestant pool!
Here's the longer version of the story: We have some friends that we love to watch Jeopardy with. Earlier this year, they found the information for the online quiz to possibly be on the show, and sent it to us, saying we should try. AJ couldn't be bothered but I decided to give it a shot. This was sometime last month. I thought it went pretty well, although they don't give you a score.
While we were in England, I got an email from the Jeopardy producers inviting me to an audition, so I confirmed. They offer them around the country and I signed up for the Los Angeles one (duh).
They told us we would be given a test, and dismissed if we didn't pass. If we did, we would stay and play mock versions of the game and be interviewed. We also had to dress as we would if we were actually appearing on Jeopardy.
My time "studying" was mainly watching lots of old episodes of Jeopardy. I got nervous on the day of. I got ready and headed up early. The audition was taking place in a hotel conference room, in a pretty dumpy area of Culver City. I meant to bring a small shooter with me to take the edge off, but I forgot, so I went in to the hotel early and had a shot of Fireball (they didn't have Skrewball!). The only other people around were obviously other contestants.
We sat outside the room where we had to pick up some papers and wait. When they came out, they took all of our individual pictures on a Polaroid. They gave us an introduction, a run down of the day, and then we watched a movie with none other than Alex welcoming up and wishing us luck and telling us to enjoy the process, and then we took the quiz. Pretty sure I completely nailed it, although I can't know for sure. They told us they don't release scores because they don't want players intimidating each other, it's only pass or fail.
After that, we all took turns playing mock versions of the game. They taught us how to use the buzzers and we all got Jeopardy pens that were made to emulate the buzzers so we could practice at home haha. I was getting nervous, because the people before me definitely had clues that I for sure didn't know the answer to. When it was my turn, I got to be the champion spot although it didn't really count for anything other than picking the first category. But, I was really proud of how good I did during my round! I was lucky there were some good categories for me... Podcasts and From the French were my favorite. And I even got this clue: Alexander McQueen's brand designer Sarah Burton created her wedding dress, and her sister Pippa's bridesmaid dress. Answer: KATE MIDDLETON! Loved that haha. After our game, they interview us on camera and I think we had a lot of fun and did great. I was pretty happy with it in the end.
After that, they explained to us that we're in their files for 18 months, and if we don't get randomly selected to come on in that time, we can take the online quiz again and try out again. They said some of their best players had to try out more than once. Definitely not very comforting, and the numbers aren't that great either: they told us 99,000 people took the online test. I don't remember the number of how many passed, but they'll meet with about 3,000 people through the US and Canada in the audition process, and about 400 people end up on the show. They said they need to vary locations, professions, personalities, etc, and that it's really a giant jigsaw puzzle for them. So, it's still a wildcard chance to get on the show, but it's been really fun to go through the process and get this far!
I was relieved when it was over. I had been getting almost stressed about it and spent the better part of the day nervous. I went to the better part of Culver City and met with Jessica for dinner and drinks at a really cute shopping area called Platform.
The night was perfect and we had wine and a really amazing "Bee Sting" pizza that featured chilis and honey. I was so exhausted when I got home... and what did I even do? I don't know, but this is how I know I'm getting old.
Fingers crossed for a Jeopardy appearance!
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