I lost on "Jeorpardy!", baby... (oooh ooh ooh ooh)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I went and took the audition test held here in DC this morning.

I didn’t make the cut. But, neither did 85% of the rest of those gathered.

The test consisted of 50 fill-in-the-blank questions, asked by a videotaped quizmaster. They only give you 8 seconds per question, but you can go back and make corrections within the 400 second test.

I got the first 5 very quickly, so I was feeling cocky. But then they started asking questions about 1980 Novels, Spanish Artists, French Impressionism, Native American words. I sank quickly.

After the last question, we handed in our sheets. Just then, I remembered the correct answer to one question. Too late. Damn!

They don’t reveal the scores from the 50 question test, but we were told that if asked, we should say that we missed it by 1 answer. :smiley:

I’ll hopefully try again in 6 months.

2

DAMMIT! I missed it again?! Shoot, I’m gonna have to keep a better eye out for the trials. When/where is the next one??

3

They advertised this tryout on TV about 1 1/2 months ago. I signed onto the website and gave them my contact info. They called the last week of April and verified that I’d requested a tryout. They sent me a letter detailing the location of the tryout.

They said us losers could try again in 6 months. So I’d say that sometime in October they be advertising for tryouts that’ll be held in November.

This is all for the DC area, mind you.

4

Any “Hollywood Squares” watchers out there?

Did you see the episode a couple of weeks ago, where, in a Mother’s Day theme, all the stars had their mothers in the square with them?

Jason Alexander’s very elderly mother blurted out some ridiculously stupid answer for some question. I think the question was, “What do more men lie about more than women?” and her answer was “Their blood”(?!)

Well everybody laughed; there was a pregnant pause in which the general attitude of the host was, “That’s not really going to be your answer, is it?” and Jason Alexander was like, “Yep, I guess we’re going with ‘blood.’”

The female contestant (of course) disagreed, and got the circle to win the match.

The guy who got completely ripped off in that, the lady’s opponent, is MY BROTHER-IN-LAW.

He was, needless to say, a little miffed.
P.S. Anybody gotten through on the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” phone quiz? I passed it one day, which puts you in a random drawing to be called the next day. I wasn’t. I’ve also failed on the phone quiz twice. (It is much harder than on the show. You only have 10 seconds to put things in order, like the fastest-finger portion of the show, but you don’t get the advantage of seeing the answers. You have to remember them as you put them in order. And the questions are more difficult.)

5

I’ve tried WWTBAM? a few times. Twice I’ve gotten to the point where they say they might call me back. They haven’t so far.

6

AWB, I hope you will forgive me for jumping into the middle of your thread, but I was going to start a thread today with the exact same title. Then I planned to post, “I don’t have to sing this, yet!” I feel a bit bad to post happy news on top of your announcement, but I know you will realize it’s not intended to be competitive or uppity.

Believe it or not, I actually passed the Jeopardy exam in Chicago last week! It was just as AWB describes it - did your Indian word question have to do with a city in Tennessee? If so, we had the same test (there are two versions, as far as I know). As you said, they don’t tell you how many you got right, but I was among the names that were called from the short stack of papers after grading. There were 77 people in my group, and sixteen of us passed. After the written test, those sixteen were set up in a series of mock games, complete with buzzers that weren’t plugged into anything, so that the contestant coordinators could make blatant notes about you on your info sheets, presumably about whether they wanted you at the top of the list of desirable contestants, or whether your sheet should get “lost” behind the file cabinet. They also took (awful) polaroid photos of everyone and had you fill out an “official” type form that included your ss# and stuff like that which would come into play if you actually got on the show. This is probably as much as anyone wants to know, but I will provide more details upon request.

Anyway, my name is in the hat, and, while I’m certainly not counting on it, there is at least a chance I could get on the show in the next year. I’m not feeling cocky, but I’m humbly pleased that I was able to make the cut. Going into it I had made up my mind that I was just hoping to have fun and give it a good shot, and not really expect to pass. My name was the second to last called, so I was somewhat disbelieving but rather thrilled nevertheless.

** Special thanks to ZgyStrdust **, whose impeccable instructions for the CTA made it possible for me to navigate around the HUGE city of Chicago as if I actually knew what I was doing. Not only did I make it to the tryouts (and how did you know they would be around the Water Tower? They were across the street.), but I even bopped on down to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the Titanic exhibit.

Thanks to those of you (few though you may be, Jeopardy fans) who sent good wishes in the earlier thread!

P.S. And I did get a Jeopardy pen.

7

*cygnus: AWB, I hope you will forgive me for jumping into the middle of your thread, but I was going to start a thread today with the exact same title. Then I planned to post, “I don’t have to sing this, yet!” I feel a bit bad to post happy news on top of your announcement, but I know you will realize it’s not intended to be competitive or uppity.

Believe it or not, I actually passed the Jeopardy exam in Chicago last week! It was just as AWB describes it - did your Indian word question have to do with a city in Tennessee? If so, we had the same test (there are two versions, as far as I know). **

No problem, Cygnus.

We did have the Tennessee question; the answer was ‘Chattanooga’ (sp?). The question I got wrong (I’m sure) was the 3-letter name of an animal that the Native Americans called Wapiki (IIRC).

Other questions I got wrong: I couldn’t remember Frank Lloyd Wright’s name; I put ‘Hearst’ (?); I wrote Piccaso for one answer, then scratched it and put Dali; some obscure (to me) novel from the 1980’s.

Well, better luck to me in 6 months, and good luck to you getting to the show.

8

*cygnus: AWB, I hope you will forgive me for jumping into the middle of your thread, but I was going to start a thread today with the exact same title. Then I planned to post, “I don’t have to sing this, yet!” I feel a bit bad to post happy news on top of your announcement, but I know you will realize it’s not intended to be competitive or uppity.

Believe it or not, I actually passed the Jeopardy exam in Chicago last week! It was just as AWB describes it - did your Indian word question have to do with a city in Tennessee? If so, we had the same test (there are two versions, as far as I know). **

No problem, Cygnus.

We did have the Tennessee question; the answer was ‘Chattanooga’ (sp?). The question I got wrong (I’m sure) was the 3-letter name of an animal that the Native Americans called Wapiki (IIRC).

Other questions I got wrong: I couldn’t remember Frank Lloyd Wright’s name; I put ‘Hearst’ (?); I wrote Piccaso for one answer, then scratched it and put Dali; some obscure (to me) novel from the 1980’s.

Well, better luck to me in 6 months, and good luck to you getting to the show.

9

*cygnus: AWB, I hope you will forgive me for jumping into the middle of your thread, but I was going to start a thread today with the exact same title. Then I planned to post, “I don’t have to sing this, yet!” I feel a bit bad to post happy news on top of your announcement, but I know you will realize it’s not intended to be competitive or uppity.

Believe it or not, I actually passed the Jeopardy exam in Chicago last week! It was just as AWB describes it - did your Indian word question have to do with a city in Tennessee? If so, we had the same test (there are two versions, as far as I know). **

No problem, Cygnus.

We did have the Tennessee question; the answer was ‘Chattanooga’ (sp?). The question I got wrong (I’m sure) was the 3-letter name of an animal that the Native Americans called Wapiki (IIRC).

Other questions I got wrong: I couldn’t remember Frank Lloyd Wright’s name; I put ‘Hearst’ (?); I wrote Piccaso for one answer, then scratched it and put Dali; some obscure (to me) novel from the 1980’s.

Well, better luck to me in 6 months, and good luck to you getting to the show.

10

from cygnus:

You’re welcome! As to the exact location of the tryouts, I have these special abilities… :wink: Actually, I didn’t know for sure. You said “north Michigan Avenue,” and the Water Tower’s a unique landmark for that area.

And BIG congratulations on passing the test! Here’s hopin’ you get on the show!

11

AWB: Sorry you didn’t make it. Better luck next time.

12

For what it’s worth: I passed the test several years ago and went on as a contestant on the Canadian (French) equivalent of the show (also called Jeopardy! and since cancelled) in Montreal. From the procedure cygnus described (written test, mock games, photos, etc.), they took their cue from the U.S. originators. Wound up finishing third – the ignominy of it all!!:D) – but it was altogether a fun experience.