Dopers on Jeopardy! THE List

Cafe Society
1

Spurred by another Jeopardy! thread, I thought I’d create a new one for the purpose on compiling the authoritative list of Dopers who have appeared on the show. Here’s my latest version. Please advise of any additions or corrections.


Doper			Year	wins	place	amount	notes
5 time champ		2001	5		$50,703
annieclaus		1967	0	2nd
AugestWest		2004	1	2nd	$31,100
Blanx			2001	0	2nd	
Captain Lance Murdoch	1997	2	
Colibri			1974
Commasense		1991	1	2nd	$7,201
ElvisL1ves		1996	0	2nd	
h.sapiens		1994	5		$62,000	semi-finals of tournament
jsc1953			1988	0	3rd 
Mama Tiger		1994		3rd 			lost to a five-time champ
Mr. Moto		2000	0	2nd 
Richardb		1984	
The Man Who		2003	1		$50,000	Myron Myers,	in one show
Twickster		1994	3		$46,000
Walloon			1997	1	2nd	$4,100
Voyager			1997	0	2nd

Here’s the chronological list:
1967 annieclaus
1974 Colibri
1984 Richardb
1988 jsc1953
1991 Commasense
1994 h. sapiens
1994 Mama Tiger
1994 Twickster
1996 ElvisL1ves
1997 Captain Lance Murdoch
1997 Voyager
1997 Walloon
2000 Mr. Moto
2001 5 time champ
2001 Blanx
2003 The Man Who
2004 AugestWest

We can also use this thread to recount our experiences on the show, answer questions from the teeming thousands, etc. (I had written several paragraphs about my experience, but the frigging hamsters ate them. What the %@&#'s matter with the SD servers in the afternoon? I’ll re-write them later.)

2

Have we met? The names Jennings, Ken Jennings.

3

Ok, I’ll toss out a couple of questions:

What did you spend the money on?
What did you do between tapings/while waiting to tape?

4

I bought a big-screen TV, and paid some bills, I think. (I only won $7,200, and taxes cut it down to about $5,000, IIRC.)

Contestants are kept on a tight leash. You are instructed not to talk to anyone in the studio except the contestant coordinators, and they even have to accompany you to the restrooms. Before your show, you are kept with the other waiting contestants in a separate section of the studio audience, watching the folks ahead of you play. If you win, you are rushed off to a restroom to change your clothes. If you lose, you are escorted out of the studio.

5

Didn’t get any; although leading after DJ, didn’t get FJ question and defending champ did. My fabulous parting gift was big-screen TV, which is still too much a part of my life. BTW, California takes a tax (7%) then off the top of all cash prizes, and one has to pay tax on the value of a non-cash prize before getting it. New York doesn’t tax winnings at all on non-residents, making my Millionaire experience much more profitable.

Games are (or at least were) taped a week’s worth at a time, back to back. A group of 10-12 contestants arrived in a controllable bunch (and you are indeed controlled when in the studio). We all watched tapings of games until called for our own debuts, and afterward were free to go.

6

Bought a car (back when I was on, they didn’t give you a car for winning 5 games). I also spent some on a few other miscellaneous things. The rest I saved.

7

Should I construe this to mean that Ken Jennings has been sequestered for quite some time now, or has the rule since changed?

8

Another question (this is a bit more difficult to express, so please bear with me):

How good at you at more difficult trivia? For example, I think most of the questions on Jeopardy are fairly easy. I’d say on a give night I can answer from 75-95% of all questions correctly. But I think some of the trivia tossed out here is quite difficult. Do you do well on SDMB trivia as well? Do you need to know 120% of trivia to get a decent score once you start in on the real thing, with all attendant stress and pressure? Or are the questions pretty much just as easy in real life but it’s just tough to buzz in?

I hope that made some sense.

9

It’s been a while, and as it was happening, everything seem to go so fast that I didn’t have time to think about it until afterwards, but although I was nervous, my mind was oddly clear most of the time. Alot of the time it seemed as though I barely had to think, that the answer was right there, ready to come out. Of course there were some questions I just didn’t know, as always, and a few I knew, but when I buzzed in my mind became a blank, but for the most part, the answers came as easily as when I play along at home. I think a big part of my success was my unexpected ability with the buzzer. I don’t think of myself as a very physically coordinated person, but I had good timing. I’m sure my fellow contestants also knew most of the answers, I just got in ahead of them.

10

How difficult is it to qualify to be a contestant?

Plus I just want to say: I bow to your superior trivial knowledge. I’m not worthy! :slight_smile:

11

So, you can watch the games from the audience *before * your appearance, but if you lose you can’t go back to the audience to watch the rest of the week’s taping? Wow…

12

No. You are only controlled while on the lot for the taping, so as to prevent any possibility of collusion with members of the show’s staff who are in contact with the “material,” the game answers and questions. This is to comply with the Federal laws enacted after the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. The contestant coordinators have no contact with the writers or other production crew members.

They tape five shows on each of two days per week. At the end of each taping day, you go home. Ken has commented on-air about flying between SLC and L.A. for the tapings. (He averages about $33,000 per show, so he’s been making about $165,000 per tape day!)

I think you’d do well on the show. That was about the average I calculated for myself before I tried out. So give it a shot.

Unfortunately, I think it’s become significantly harder to get on, thanks to the increased popularity of this and all game shows. Back in late 1990, they announced during a show that they’d be holding a contestant search in Atlantic City, and if you wanted to try out, call this number. I called, got a busy signal for a while, but eventually got through (I don’t think it took more than an hour or so) and was given an appointment time. I was among 100 people given a test, of whom 11 were selected to go to the next stage. (They gave the test to a couple thousand over two or three days in AC.) We played a little mock game, after which they knocked out five or six more. After the last phase (talk about yourself extemporaneously for a minute) they said “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” A month later they did.

Now it seems much harder. The local contestant searches involve mailing in a postcard, from which pool they select a small fraction (10% or less) just to audition. That number will be weeded down by another 90%. I think they also hold auditions in L.A. periodically, but I don’t know how you sign up for them, or what method gives you the best chance to get on these days.

But your chances are still probably better than getting on Millionaire. I tried that damn phone test scores of times, and got past the first stage dozens of times, but never got a call back.

You may be allowed to watch the rest. I think I had to leave to catch my plane. Anyone else remember about this point?

13

You can also sign up for local contestant searches on the website. (That’s how I got to audition.) But the test does weed folks out in a big way.

The first time I auditioned (1998, I think it was) I was in a group of 150, and 15 of us passed. (In my group, 14 of the 15 were attorneys. The one who wasn’t was a teacher at one of the best known prep schools in the U.S.) The second time I took it, earlier this year, was in a batch of 225. Of that group, 18 passed. (A much more diverse group this time around, thankfully.) The first time, we were told that we needed to answer 70% (35 out of 50) of the questions correctly in order to pass, and we reviewed the correct answers after the test. This year, there was much made about “we’re not going to tell you how many correct answers are required, just do your best” and there was no review of the answers afterward.

Those who pass the written test are then put through a practice game (now complete with a travelling monitor bank, the infamous yellow lights and signaling buttons just like on the show) where they are vetted for poise, ability to not fidget, voice projection and other game-playing characteristics that would make them a good contestant.

14

So how are y’all at eating Madagascar hissing cockroaches? :smiley:

15

I was once on COPS!

:wink:

16

Okay, here’s the gist of the stuff that the hamsters ate.

The main impression I have from my experience on Jeopardy! was how enjoyable it was. My main goal was not to make a total ass of myself on national TV, and I was pleased that I accomplished that. I never expected to become a five-time champ, but winning one show was great. My winning total was almost precisely the average winning amount at the time, so nothing to be ashamed of. (A co-worker told me before I flew out, “James, no matter how you do, we’re very proud of you.” I was very touched by that comment.)

I was concerned that the other contestants might be unpleasant or try to play mind games with each other, but everyone was very nice, wishing each other well, and being very good sports.

And the contestant coordinators were great! They treated each of us as if we were the most important player they’d ever had, giving no sign that the process might have become routine (much less tedious) for them. The fellow who read the clues in the practice games was very funny, giving ridiculously wrong answers and lightening up what otherwise might have been a tense situation.

I was surprised to find that I wasn’t nervous. I got up on the set in the practice game, took in the lights, the button, and everything, and just said to myself, “Okay, I can do this.” Some of the other players were visibly nervous, including the returning champ on my first show. He mentioned that his palms were sweaty as we waited to go on.

Everyone wants to know what Alex is like, but the only time you spend with him is during the on-camera interview, and at the end of the show when you’re all standing around while the credits roll. Not much time to get to know him. But during the show, he maintains an eye contact with the players that I found unexpectedly reassuring, You never see it from home, but on the set, he’s really with you. (Did any other players notice that?)

My one little Alex story: at the time, I worked at the Smithsonian Institution, and at the end of my second (and last) show, as Alex was stepping off the set, I handed him a lapel pin with the SI logo on it. He asked, “Will this get me in for free?” I was a little taken aback, and when I said, “No,” he walked off before I could add, “Everyone gets in for free.”

17

Oddly enough, they don’t ask you to do that in the test.

My favorite stories from the test:

The test (at least back when I did it in 1990) is hard. Most regular Jeopardy! clues have two pinners, or keys to the right response. E.g. “The Naval Academy is in this Maryland capital.” You might know where the Academy is, or you might know that Annapolis is the capital.

But the test clues aren’t like that. “This is the capital of Nova Scotia.” They played a tape with 50 clues on a big screen, and we had to write down the correct responses (not in the form of a question) on a piece of paper. I was panicking, because I wasn’t sure of the right responses to any of the first ten clues! Finally they said, “This is the planet closest to the sun.” Whew! One I knew.

After it was all done, and they were “grading” the tests, we were all standing around comparing note about the questions, trying to figure out which ones we had gotten right. Someone said, “If that’s the Jeopardy! test, what do you suppose the Wheel of Fortune test is like?” To which some wag replied,

“It’s the same test. But if you fail, you get to be on Wheel!”

When they announced the people who would stay for the next phase (mine was the last name they called), they told everyone else, “When you go home, you can tell all your friends that you missed it by one.”

18

I think you can sit in the audience. But I’m not sure!

If you really want to get on Jeopardy!, don’t rely on the contestant searches. Get yourself out to Los Angeles, and take the contestant test at Sony Pictures Studios. The tests are given throughout the year, and a schedule is posted one month in advance.

But even if you pass the written test, and do well on the mock game that immediately follows, there is no guarantee that you will be on the show. Your name goes into a contestant pool that has about four times as many names as there are contestant slots for that season. (They like to be able to get a balance of gender, geography, and occupation.)

19

One small thing – Mama Tiger may technically have come in third, but got the second-place prize because the other two tied for first; the champion retired, and the other guy went on to the next show. She may have actually come in second, but neither of us are sure. I was there, so I remember it all pretty well.

20

When I was on (Teen Jeopardy, but still) they sequestered us in the green room before we were on. After we’d taped, we could go out into the audience and watch the rest of the games.

They gave us awful movies to watch, too – Tomb Raider II and Three to Tango. Apparently the writers had pre-screened the films to make sure that there weren’t any clues to the day’s questions in the movies (“ANSWER: Known as a Royale with cheese in France”).