The big day arrives ...
They tell us to be at the studio about 8:00 a.m., to get prepared for the first taping which begins about 10:30. A shuttle takes us to the green room, and as we go through all the paperwork, we are introduced to Maggie, a delightful bundle of energy, whose job it is to keep us stage-frightened contestants loosened up and cheerful!
(They tape the five shows for a week all on the same day, so all the contestants for the week are in the studio that day - which contestant gets on which show is determined by a drawing.)
Finally about 10:00, we walk out onto the set for the first time; the set is large, and from the contestants' point of view, looks just like that big picture back on the first page of this website. We go through a practice round - actually getting miked, looking up at the board of clues, and practicing with the clicker.
Finally, they're ready to tape the first show ... the audience comes in, the first contestants to challenge the "returning champ" are selected, they go off for a final make-up check, the announcer, Johnny Gilbert, does his warm-up, the contestants return ... the audience lights go down, the stage lights go up ... and Johnny Gilbert is saying ...
"This ... is ... Jeopardy!"
The contestants who are not playing are sitting in a special section of the audience watching. The first two games are won by Susan, the returning champ from the week before. She's a very bright champion, and I'm just praying that someone else is the returning champ when it's my turn!
In the third game of the day, just before lunch, Susan is finally edged out by Jared. Now I'm even more worried about Jared, who has just beaten a four-time champ.
For lunch, we are taken as a group over to the Sony commissary, where we are watched over by Uzi-toting guards to keep people from talking to us (strict game-show rules! ... and just kidding about the guards, I don't think that those were real Uzi's!)
We then head back to the studio, where the contestants for the fourth show are munched through by Jared, very convincingly, and I'm praying again that I'm not picked for the fifth and final show of the day (if I'm not picked today, I come back on a different day). Just then I hear "Angel - to the green room for make-up!" Sigh ...
I come back into the studio with Jared and with Alex, the other new contestant. We line up at our podiums, and next thing I know, the audience lights are dimming ... the stage lights are coming up ... and Johnny Gilbert is doing a pretty good imitation of my name!
Once the game actually begins, I am, to put it charitably, off to a slow start. The categories "TV and Film Spaceships" and "What's in Your Food," provide bafflement for me (and humor later). I respond with some right and some wrong, and at the first commercial break, it's not looking good for the home team - I'm in a distant third place, Jared and Alex both have $2800, and I'm at $600!
After the game starts again, I catch a few breaks, and the categories "Geology" and "Government and Politics" help me a bit. Finally, I get lucky and respond correctly to nearly all the clues in an odd category called "Possessives" (example: "13, to the guy who makes your bread," the correct response: "a baker's dozen" - who could study for something like that!)
By the end of the first round, I find myself in second place - a distant second, but at least not last place! (Jared has $5200, I have $3600, and Alex has $2600.)
In the Double Jeopardy round which follows, the "Eurovision Song Contest" category kills me (really, how many people know the name of Elton John's writing partner!), but Alex cleans up this category impressively, and builds a commanding lead.
Some of the remaining categories are good for me and two of the responses I give in this last round ("winds" and "Singapore") startle me as they emerge surprisingly from the depths of my subconscious! By the end of the Double Jeopardy round, Alex is in the lead, but I'm pretty close behind, and Jared has fallen to $1!
The game will come down to the "Final Jeopardy" round. Jared can't win, but I can win if I get the correct response and Alex misses it.
The Final Jeopardy clue is incredibly obscure (something about an unknown island in Massachusetts), but somehow my subconscious provides the correct response immediately - I knew right away that it was "lighthouse" (don't ask me how these things work!). Alex fusses and frets and finally scrawls down an answer in the last few seconds - he also writes down "lighthouse"! Since we both have the correct response, he maintains his lead, and my glorious career as a Jeopardy contestant comes to an end!
Perhaps the most interesting thing about being a contestant was that I found I had very little time to think, analyze, or even remember information - most of the mental work I found was done without my explicitly thinking about it. I just pointed myself mentally in the direction of the information presented, and waited as my brain did its magic ... and most of the time, what came out was right!
It was a great experience!