Who here has tried out (or gotten) on Jeopardy?

[mmbt0ne]

My mom always signs me up for these things, but I never get picked to tryout.

If I do, I'll prove once and for all GT > UGA,

[youtalkfunny]

Oh yeah, do us all a favor--if you're in second place going into Final Jeopardy, DON'T MOVE ALL-IN! I see otherwise brilliant people do this all the time, and it drives me nuts.

One other thing--if you find a Daily Double in a catagorie that you know ANYTHING about, bet it all! Watch closely, and you'll notice that the contestants on that show hardly EVER miss a Daily Double. If I'm in a bar, and Jeopardy comes on TV, I offer all comers a prop bet where the contestants have to go 3-for-3 on the Daily Doubles. I win that bet 80%-90% of the time.

If you find the last Daily Double as time runs out, and you know this will be the last question, or close to it--and if you're in a close game--bet it all! Give yourself a chance to make it a runaway going into Final Jeopardy. You have a unique oppurtunity to win the game, RIGHT NOW, one question settles it. And like I said, contestants almost NEVER miss a Daily Double. This is your chance to take the bats out of your opponents' hands. You all get a chance to bet big on the last question, but in this case, only YOU get a chance to end it now. What more could you ask?

[PokerFink]

FWIW, here is some info on Jeopardy coming from a close family friend.

My father, who is extremely smart and consistantly better than the contestants on jeopardy has a friend Bill who was on the show. Bil is even smarter than my father, and my father has said that Bill consistantly whips him when they watch jeopardy together.

Bill was on the show and got absolutely DESTROYED. He coulden't buzz in in time, so he never had a chance. He answered something like 8 questions the entire time.

About 95% of the game is being able to buzz in at the right time, since most of the time all 3 contestants (or atleast 2/3) know the answer to the question. My father is absolutely terrified of going on the show, since he doesn't want to look like an idiot the way Bill did.

So just because you know the questions when they air the episodes on TV doesn't mean you will do well. The test is notoriously much harder than the actual questions on TV (making it hard to qualify), and buzzing in is most of the game anyway.

[ClaytonN]

[ QUOTE ]
A former champion wrote a book that focuses on things you NEED to know before going on Jeopardy. If I was going to try out for Jeopardy, I'd find it. For example, he lists about 100 things you need to know about opera, or about cooking, or poetry, or all the other catagories that they use over and over, and keep asking the same questions about--the next time they DON'T ask a Wagner question in the opera catagorie, will be the FIRST time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, my weaknesses are Opera and the Arts. My strengths are history, sports, linguistics, sciences, pop culture.

[ QUOTE ]
So just because you know the questions when they air the episodes on TV doesn't mean you will do well. The test is notoriously much harder than the actual questions on TV (making it hard to qualify), and buzzing in is most of the game anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I learned this in Academic Bowl. There are some kids I played against who were just insanely good with the buzzer.

Sometimes the optimal strategy is the buzz 1 or 2 seconds before the answer develops in your mind. You just have to have a "go" button in your brain and push it when it feels right.

[Brain]

Not yet, but thank you for reminding me to check their audition schedule.

[somethingstupid]

Awesome man. If you make it on, slap Trebec in the face and tell him he's a pussy. And also tell him hi from Teresa.

[iMsoLucky0]

[ QUOTE ]
Awesome man. If you make it on, slap Trebec in the face and tell him he's a pussy. And also tell him hi from Teresa.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL. That struck me as funny for some reason. I guess because the "tell him hi from Teresa." part. It's funny, because the poster said it like it would actually happen (after the first part of the sentence being a joke). LOL

I'm stoned.

[felson]

I tried out for it about four years ago when they sent the bus down to San Diego. They rented a ballroom at the Westin downtown and put up a screen where they flashed 50 Jeopardy "answers," with categories, in white text on blue background, just like on the show. You write down the "questions" on a sheet of paper (you can omit the "What is ..." part) and turn it in. There's no penalty for guessing.

Afterwards you wait while they score it up. During this time you fill out a form with your personal information and also some bits of info about yourself for Alex's small-talk part of the show.

If you score > their predetermined cutoff value, then you have qualified to appear on the show. They call your name and you go up to the front where they have 3 buzzers set up, just like on the show. They called my name. Around 10% of entrants get this far, they said.

Then you test your buzzer skills just as on the show for about 5 minutes (in groups of three). From this point, they're not screening for trivia knowledge anymore. They said several times that it's important to choose another category/dollar value as soon as you get an answer correct, because they want to keep the show moving. I forgot twice, though, and they had to remind me during the session.

Then they ask a couple getting-to-know-you questions ("what would you do with the money if you won?"). And then they tell you that you could be called at any time during the rest of the season, but that if you don't get called and want to be on next season, you have to retry. And then you go home.

I never got called for the show. I'd like to think it's because I kept forgetting to call for the next category. But part of me knows that I'm just not as sexy as Ken Jennings.

[Prevaricator]

All the pop culture questions they put on that show to try and appeal to the young, hip generation really dilute the intelligence factor of the show. I'd expect that for college jeopardy this would be even more so. By the way, where do you go to school? And how does Jeopardy select which schools it takes from?

[Yeti]

What's your specialist subject, foods that start with the letter Q?