Somehow I got this idea in my head that one of the requirements for any Jeopardy writer is that he or she has either competed on the show or won at least one game. It’s not rumor-y enough for Snopes and my Google-fu is at yellow belt status today, so I turn, as always, to the Dope.
Even better: we don’t have a Jeopardy writer on here do we? A former one? I know we have champions (5 day ones, ever) and (ex)crossword puzzle architects, so the possibility of a member being a Jeopardy clue writer doesn’t seem too far fetched.
Ok. Thanks.
At my audition for Jeopardy! (last April), I asked one of the contestant coordinators whether it was necessary to have been a contestant in order to be a writer. He said it was not necessary, as far as he knew. But he didn’t sound very certain about this.
No. I know of at least one writer who isn’t. (Former writer, at least.)
Well, there logically must exist former writers who weren’t contestants. If there is a rule requiring them to be so, it would have to have been implemented at some point in the show’s history.
Heh. No, this was someone who was writing for them back in the late '80s sometime.
*Shakes fist at Chronos: Damn your logic, fancypants. Damn it all to hell. Thanks to all for once again eliminating a little ignorance from the world.