It’s not a done deal yet. It’s entirely possible that a weird string of seven-timers and not-low-scoring-six-timers comes along this season and bumps me out of contention. That said, no six-timer has ever missed out. I sure hope I don’t end up making history that way.
Hee! I really should go back and look at the stats from the other superchamps, just to see if anyone did worse than me. I don’t think you’re far off from the truth, Duke.
Thank you all so much. It’s been both amazing and humbling to find out how many people, from all over the world, cheered me on. I had no idea that one of the highlights of having played on Jeopardy! would be the people who have gotten in touch or back in touch with me.
I’m pretty sure no five-timer has ever missed out, either. In one case, somebody had to wait till the next year’s tournament. In any case, they don’t adhere to a strict calendar for the ToC, so they might wait less than a year in the event of a spate of five-timers or (more likely) wait a little longer if they are lacking in multi-day winners.
It is true that the show could be canceled or the universe otherwise come to an end, but outside those scenarios, I’d say your pretty safe.
Well, now I’m allowed to say (which has been driving me nuts for the last couple weeks!) that mine will broadcast May 28. It was a blast, an honor, and a pleasure.
That’s how much I had expected before going out to play in November 2011. I was quite pleased to learn that we’d only have to wait two months to see our games; three to four is closer to the norm based on contestant experiences I’ve read online.
Congratulations, Zsofia, and retroactive good luck! You didn’t, by chance, just play a couple of days ago did you? If so you’d have met a friend of mine who was there to be a contestant with you.
I played yesterday. The people in the contestant pool in the green room are, I swear, the nicest people on the planet. I should have gotten their info to Facebook friend them - now I’ve forgotten everybody’s name, so I guess I’ll have to wait and try when the shows air! I was the first of the morning, which was good and bad.
I couldn’t agree more. I never went out to L.A. expecting to come back with new friendships; it was one of the best surprises I brought home. Fortunately, having read so many contestant experiences online and seeing over and over again people say they wish they’d kept in better touch with their classmates, I gave out my email address to all the other contestants and set up a private Google group for us to keep in touch until our games aired. The week we were on was just a delight, with most of us friending up on Facebook and cheering for each other on our walls. Doing so definitely made the experience more special.
Future contestants: give everybody your email address! You’ll be glad that you did.
There’s an incredible feeling of camaraderie - I mean, of course you want to win, but I really didn’t get a sense even from the guys of real personal competitiveness. It’s really more you against the board, in a way. Congratulations for the winners are really sincere.
I’ve been a member of Mensa for 35 years. I was a contestant on Jeopardy in 2008 (came in second). I don’t consider myself to be “august company.” I am more like “february company.”
I’m always days to weeks behind on my DVR Jeopardy! watching, so I just finished up Kingspades’ run last night. Awesome job
You actually had The Littlest Briston (who hates the show [whose kid is this, anyway??]) cheering along. “I really hope Dave keeps winning – you know him, right? Tell him I said to keep winning, ok?”
Aw, thank you both! You’re not the first parent I’ve heard whose kids enjoyed watching me. Given Jeopardy!'s normal demographic (the Sea-Bond and Depends crowd), I seem to be most popular with those viewers who are closest in age to wearing diapers.
Oh, no, not at all - just kidding. My workplace went and put it in the Calendar of Events. Frankly, I hardly remember what happened, so it will be new to me.
They told us we could tell close friends (and for that matter my family was there and they weren’t given any guidelines on keeping it to themselves) but we can’t tell the press or the internet. So the people I’ll be watching it with already know what happened.
