Confessions Of A Jeopardy Champion

Today we’re in for a special, surprise visit from Sally O’Rourke who recently won over $30K by becoming a champion on Jeopardy! Sally caught my attention during the last of her two shows. First, she was introduced as a writer. Second, she was fun to watch. Then she went and mentioned that she had a blog on pop culture! I had to find her. I did. She’s here.

She’s already told the tale of her journey over at her site Look, Sally, Look. I highly recommend her three part series which you can start here. She also runs No Hard Chords, an ambitious attempt to reference and discuss every Billboard #1 single of all time. She’s also on Twitter. Find her and say hi.

Sally and I recently sat down, not together though. She was at a computer somewhere and I at mine. Here’s what she has to say about winning on Jeopardy, sizing up Alex, and helping me conquer Meredith Vieria.

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How does somebody even get on Jeopardy?

The short answer is that I took the timed test on the “Jeopardy!” website. It’s only offered about once a year, but registration is open right now for the 2011 tests on February 8-10. I … got an email in April inviting me to the tryouts in New York later that month. The tryouts start with a 50-question written test, followed by a short practice round with the other people in your audition group. The contestant coordinators also work with you on the anecdotes you’ve prepared, and they videotape you while you play to get an idea of whether you’ll have a decent presence on screen.

The longer answer is too much to get into here, but it involves years of reading widely, collecting trivia, playing quiz bowl and watching “Jeopardy!” It helps to be prepared.

You said you were one of the few people who were not going to spend winnings on traveling. What did you think you would spend the money on?

I said I’d buy a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar. While I’d love to have one of those someday, I don’t think I earned a high enough amount that I’d be comfortable splurging on something so impractical. I already have two 6-string guitars (acoustic and electric), and I don’t play those hardly as much as I’d like anyway. As to what I’ll actually spend the money on, I haven’t decided yet. I’m putting that off to when I get the check a few months from now. It’ll probably go straight into savings. And yeah, I’m guessing at least part of it will end up paying for travel expenses.

Describe the period of time between leaving town for the show tapings and actually going on air.

When I first got the call from the contestant coordinator asking me to come to the taping on September 29, I was a bit hesitant at first. That date was smack in the middle of a trip I was planning to take with my mother and grandparents to Mackinac Island, Michigan and Chicago. I was hoping the coordinator would offer me a later date instead, but she didn’t … we rearranged our trip so that my mother, grandmother and I would first spend a couple of days in San Francisco before flying down to Los Angeles. There, we stayed at the Culver City Radisson because it has a special reduced price for “Jeopardy!” contestants and a shuttle that would take me to Sony Pictures Studios the morning of my taping. Being out in Culver City without a car, it was hard to do a lot of sightseeing. We did take a tour bus into LA the day before my taping. It got us into the city, took us around the sights and still got me back early enough that I could spend the rest of the evening studying.

Turns out the answers weren't in his moustache

For the record, we went to Chicago and Mackinac Island the next week. That’s the benefit of being a temp – you can take off whenever you want!

Alex isn’t really as perfect as he acts is he?

The question I get more than any other is “What is Alex like in real life?” I regret to say I’m not much wiser than the average “Jeopardy!” viewer. The contestants aren’t really allowed to talk to Alex in order to avoid allegations of cheating, as he gets the answers to all of the clues in advance. When you see the contestants talking with him at the end of the show, it’s mainly just everyone congratulating the winner and talking about the Final Jeopardy question.

The two variations of that question that come up a lot are “How tall is Alex?” and “Do you think he’s as smart as he acts on the show?” First, he didn’t strike me as unusually tall or short, so I’d guess he’s average. Second, I think he’s a pretty smart guy. He’s been hosting “Jeopardy!” since before I was born, so he’s had plenty of time to accrue a good deal of knowledge. Plus he just comes across as being smart, which is hard to fake believably.

As far as being perfect, he does slip up sometimes! If he stumbles over any words while reading the clue, he redubs the line during the commercial break. [Editor’s note: I knew it!]