"I Lost on Jeopardy, Baby" Part I

B"H

I was on Jeopardy a couple of weeks ago, but the taping was back in November. Back then, I started writing about my experiences, while they were fresh in my head, but I wanted to wait until I put it in my blog. So here is my first installment:

It’s currently November 13, 2008. I can’t put this on-line yet, but I want to get my thoughts down about my Jeopardy experience. I can’t put anything on-line about it until after the show I was on airs.

I should probably begin at the beginning. I’ve wanted to be on Jeopardy since I was a little girl. They didn’t have teen and pre-teen and college tournaments when I was in that age group, so I was never able to do one of those tournaments.

The show started off in NY (which I live near), but like just about all TV/Movie and similar things (sports teams????), they moved to California (Los Angeles in this case). So up until recently, the only way you could try out for Jeopardy (at least since I was old enough to be a contestant) was to go to California. Finances being what they are (like non-existent????) I never had been to California. So being on Jeopardy seemed like a faded dream.

They did once have a tryout in Atlantic City, so my Mom and I went down to AC and tried out. But since it was a 10-question test (and you needed 7 correct out of 10 to be considered) it was hard to pass.

But a few years ago, hope was restored! First of all, Jeopardy had changed its policy of scoring so that everyone who was on the program was guaranteed $1000. Secondly, they began to offer an on-line qualifying test. This was the 50-question test that they used to qualify people.

The first time I heard about the on-line test, I tried to take it but because I have dial-up internet service I wasn’t able to get set up fast enough and I missed taking the test. The second time I heard about the test I got on-line earlier, set up fast enough and took the test.

You don’t know how you did on the test. They tell you that only some of the people who pass are called in for an interview. So I figured I would never hear anything. But……

I got a letter (or was it a card? I was so excited I don’t even remember) saying that I should go to NY for an interview for Jeopardy. It was on a Friday in June at 9 o’clock in the morning. And it was a Friday that my Mom (who I usually do these things with) would be in Israel. This meant several things: 1) I would have to go on a Friday (a day that I usually devote to getting ready for Shabbat – the Sabbath) 2) I would have to get up at an unG-dly hour in the morning (to me, anything before 8:30 am is unG-dly) – something like 6 in the morning (usually, if I’m up at 6 in the morning it’s only because I haven’t gone to sleep yet, and this happens more often than you might expect) 3) I would have to go ALONE (something I rarely do).

But, just to show how much Jeopardy means to me, I managed to do this. I even got into bed the night before around 10 pm (the only way I’m in bed by 10 pm is if I’m sick or I just came back from Israel the day after staying up all night to see the Giants in the Super Bowl that starts in Israel at about 1:30 in the morning, but I digress).

Tune in again for the continuing story of a regular person who's taken her first step along the Game Show Road.



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Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Tamar -- Mother of Kings
Jewish Perspective of G-d
Why I'm a Red Sox Fan

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