‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Reveals How She Made It On the Show [Exclusive]
Appearing on Jeopardy! was never on writer Megan Elliott’s bucket list. She casually enjoyed the show, often able to “win” from home, but being a contestant was never a major goal in her life.
Of course, once she had a chance to audition for the show, she jumped at the opportunity. Elliott, a senior writer at Showbiz Cheat Sheet, offered a behind-the-scenes peek into how she became a contestant and what it was like to tape the show with former host Alex Trebek.
‘Jeopardy!’ contestants take an online test
“I was never like, ‘I’m going to be on Jeopardy!,'” Elliott recounted to Showbiz Cheat Sheet, explaining that she took the test online for fun but “wasn’t super serious about it.”
In 2018, the Jeopardy! contestant test was a timed online test. The test loosely resembled an abridged version of what a Jeopardy! contestant would face on the show. “But you don’t have to type your answer in the form of a question,” she laughed, adding that she’d taken the test a handful of times for fun but never heard anything.
A whirlwind ‘Jeopardy!’ audition
In early 2019, Elliott was invited to a group audition in Los Angeles. Upon arriving at a hotel conference room, Elliott and the other prospective contestants took a written quiz. Then producers warmed up the room for a mock Jeopardy! game.
“One of the producers asks you questions and you get to hold the buzzer,” she recounted of the mock game. “There’s no actual TV screen or anything. You are just standing up at the front of a hotel conference room and they ask you a couple of questions and you have to buzz in.”
The in-person audition is likely designed to help producers determine which prospects are knowledgeable, as well as identify those who won’t freeze on camera. Elliott said she tried to focus on selling herself as a contestant who would do well on TV, not just on proving her trivia expertise. She thinks that may have played a role in why she was selected as a contestant.
After a whirlwind morning, Elliott was sent home and didn’t hear from producers for a year. (After their audition, prospective contestants are kept in the contestant pool for 18 months.)
“Early in 2020, I heard from a producer who was looking for local contestants,” she recalled. The show always has alternate contestants for every episode, which are filled by Jeopardy! hopefuls who can quickly travel to the set. Elliott lived in Southern California, which made her the perfect choice.
How she prepared to be a ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant
Even though she knew she was still in the contestant pool, Elliott was still shocked when she got the call about appearing on Jeopardy!
“I should have spent that year studying a little more intensely!” she laughed. Once she realized she was going to compete, she got serious about prepping.
“You don’t get a lot of advance notice, maybe a month before the taping,” she said. During that time, she watched a lot of old Jeopardy! games and refreshed her knowledge of basic trivia facts, such as world capitals. She also practiced by standing up while watching games and pretending to buzz in with a mock signaling device.
In February 2020, Elliott finally made it to the Jeopardy! stage at Sony Studios in Culver City, Calif.
She arrived on set and went through orientation and an explanation of how the taping would work. “I did a rehearsal and watched a whole day of taping,” she recalled. She was given some guidelines on wardrobe ahead of time and the in-house makeup artist made sure Elliott was camera ready.
Because she was an alternate, Elliott ended up not playing a game on her first taping day. She returned several weeks later, in mid-March 2020, for a second taping, with a guarantee that she would be a contestant.
She finally got her ‘Jeopardy!’ shot in March 2020
Once she was ready to go, nerves took over. “I was super nervous. I think at some point, you just gotta go with it. And then it’s just an adrenaline thing, at least for me. Because they play the game in real time. Occasionally they’ll have to stop if there’s a glitch with the board. But it pretty much happens as you watch it.”
Production assistants offer water during commercial breaks or allow contestants to use the restroom if there is time. Producers also gave contestants a pep talk if it appeared that someone was struggling, just to keep the game flowing. “The producers are very kind and they know they are dealing with a bunch of people who aren’t super comfortable being on TV,” she said.
“I think you just have to be in the zone,” she said. “It was so quick … you go through the two rounds and then there’s the break for Final Jeopardy!”
She ultimately came in a very respectable second, but Elliott kicked herself for a couple of mistakes she made in the final stages of the game.
“I did not get the Final Jeopardy! question right. American history is not my strength, even though it was kind of an easy question,” she said.
She also has regrets about her Final Jeopardy! wager. Heading into the game, Elliott had “stressed a lot about the wagering strategy.” especially because she’s not great at math. When the moment to wager arrived, her score was double that of the player in second place.
“I was just kind of flustered,” she recalled. In hindsight, “I should have wagered nothing in Final Jeopardy! … The guy who was second had exactly half my score, so I should have wagered zero.” That would have resulted in a tie between her and the other player. If that happens, “then you go into the tiebreaker, extra Final Jeopardy! round … I should have done that, and I didn’t, which is a regret.”
