The Day of the Show!
7:00am comes awfully
early when you’re too excited to stand it! Cathy let me shower and get ready
and then we went down for breakfast. I had to bring three changes of clothing
(tops), just in case I win and have to do another episode, and I had to “do” my
own hair but I was not allowed to put on make-up. I noticed a few other very
nervous people at the restaurant with garment bags or hair done but no make-up.
Around 7:30am, we all congregated by the lobby doors. I thought it was a LOT of
people and was a little worried, but I realized there were really only 13 of us
– the rest were “visitors,” like Cathy.
A shuttle arrived to
pick up us contestants and we all kind of sighed with relief and excitement… we
were ON OUR WAY! As it turned out, the returning champion was on the shuttle
with us. He had won his episode three weeks before and had to go home for the
Christmas holidays and NOT tell anyone how he had done! I don’t think I could
have done that. I talked to him (Travis) a bit later on and found out that he
was also from Washington, DC. In fact, we figured out that we were in the same
in-person try-out group. Not just that we both tried out in DC, we were in the same
small group of 30 people! Weird…
Anyway – we got to the
studio and were ushered through the lot into the Jeopardy studio “green room.”
I was one of the first in, so they put me into the second make-up chair (Travis
was first because he is returning champion). As I said, they didn’t want us to
do our own make-up because they use special HD make-up. The funniest part for
me was that they said they had to “warm” me up a bit so I wouldn’t be such a
contrast to Alex. I joked that it would have looked like a photo-negative, so
no problem! I thought the make-up was very nice – effective, but very subtle.
It took a lot of effort to not wipe off the lip gloss though, I tell ya!
Once my make-up was
done, I joined the raucous group in the other room, where the handlers were
guiding us to the paperwork, helping us figure out our “Hometown Howdy”,
explaining what was going to happen and generally, herding us into shape.
Basically, they made sure we did everything we needed to do ahead of time *and*
helped us calm down and not be too nervous. Even better was when they led us
out to the actual studio where we got a “how-to” on the podia and “signaling
device” (aka “clicker”), and then took turns actually playing the game while
the stage manager got everything figured out. Behind each podium was a riser
that was raised for short people, etc. I stood on mine (in my flats) and they
raised it. And raised it. And raised it again! At that point, I felt a little
rocky and my hands could barely hit the podium, so I said, “Um, guys?” Much laughter
and they lowered it a bit so that the podium hit about waist high – like it did
for everyone else.
That part was really
fun, by the way. We were actually playing the game! And for points! Of course,
the points didn’t matter, but it was really cool to realize that I *could*
answer some of these questions! Answers. Whatever.
During this time, we
also filmed our “Hometown Howdy” bits. We had two: a short one with just the
name and location, and another one with a bit of personality. Mine were “Hi, I’m Deborah Smith from
Washington, DC and my friends call me the Queen of Useless Knowledge. Watch me
show how useful it is on Jeopardy.” Blah blah blah, something like that. It was
a little nerve-wracking! Basically, these are the ads that are sometimes shown
on the local station when someone local is on Jeopardy. I don’t think they are
on the DC station too much because there ALWAYS seems to be someone from the DC
area on the show! In fact, out of the 13
people in my contestant group, there were four of us (~30%) from the DC area:
me and Travis from DC, a guy from Silver Spring, MD and another guy from
Arlington, VA. The videos are available on the Jeopardy website during the
broadcast week, but I think they are no longer available after a few weeks.*
After they figured out
all the technical specs, the handlers took us back to the green room because
the audience was about to come in. We had a last chance to get something to eat
or drink, use the bathroom, meditate or whatever. Throughout the morning, I had
gotten along with pretty much everyone, but there were two guys with whom I
just clicked, Larry & John. As they were about to lead us out, the handlers
asked us if any of us needed anything else before we left. Larry asked if we
could get a shot of Jack Daniels, and John and I quickly seconded his request –
but no, dang it. No alcohol allowed. Ah well.
By the way, they made
a point of reminding us – several times – about how special we were already. I
think they know that approximately two thirds of us are going home as losers,
so it’s important to remind us that we have already won more than most people!
They said that about 100,000 people did the online test in January. Of those,
about 10,000 are called in for in-person auditions, and about 3,000 are put
into the pool of possible contestants for 18 months. Each year, they have about
400 spots on the show, so they said “You ARE the one percent!” To which, every
single one of us contestants said, “NO, we’re the 0.4%!!!” (Nerds…)
They led us back into
the studio and realized that it was full. We stood in a group off stage at
first and they picked the first two contestants who would be playing against
Travis, and Larry was picked! Yay! After they led them off, they led us to our
seats where we could watch the games being filmed.
All of our “guests”
were sitting in the same section as us, but across the aisle from where we
would be sitting (the general audience were separated from the guests by a
wall). We had been told (a lot) that we shouldn’t look at them, don’t wave,
etc. etc. etc… Yeah, right! Cathy and I smiled at each other and I climbed up
to the third row, where it ended up being just me and John. We watched as Larry
*killed* the competition, and of course we played along! It was very exciting
to be in the audience, even though I wasn’t actually playing the game. They had
told us (a lot) that we shouldn’t even whisper while we were in the audience,
because they had microphones on the audience and could tell. So John and I were
spelling out the answers on our legs and trying not to giggle. (OK, *I* was
trying not to giggle!)
Larry won the game and
was led off to the green room again, while we waited in the seats. After the
episode was done filming, they pulled two more names out of the hat, and those
contestants went back to the green room to get their make-up re-done and to
clear their stomachs of butterflies. (I think we stayed in the studio during
that part, but I’m not positive.)
Larry ended up winning
BOTH the Monday and Tuesday games and was the returning champion for Wednesday.
They pulled two more names out of the hat and called “Deborah” and “John”! We
looked at each other in surprise and went down to find out which podium we
would get (I got the middle one). We went back to the green room for re-touches
and then came out and got settled at the podium again. Once again, I had to
write my name twice because I did it too small the first time. They raised the
riser, and Alex came over and shook hands and then…
Dee dee Dee dee dee Dee
deeee Dee dee Dee dee DEE dedeededeedee... “TODAY ON JEOPARDY!”
ACK!!!!!
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