University of Virginia issued the following announcement on Feb. 15
Megan Sullivan, a third-year classics major at the University of Virginia and a self-described fan of trivia games, has been trying out to be a “Jeopardy!” contestant since she was 12 years old. She finally got her big break in October and flew out to Los Angeles to tape the show several weeks later.
Sullivan is one of 36 college students appearing on this year’s “Jeopardy! National College Championship,” which has several rounds and began airing Jan. 8. The tournament’s first-place finisher will win $250,000.
Per a nondisclosure agreement, Sullivan could not share any spoilers when UVA Today reached out to her. But she did share some tantalizing, behind-the-scenes intel as well has her “Jeopardy!” back story. So read on to learn more about Sullivan and tune in for her prime-time television appearance Wednesday at 8 p.m. on ABC for the special broadcast. If you miss the show, you can stream it the following day on Hulu.
Q. How did you become a contestant on “Jeopardy! National College Championship”?
A. I’ve been trying out for years, four or five times in all. The first time I took the test was when I was 12, and I was so young that my dad had to type the answers as I dictated because I wasn’t fast enough at typing.
This time, I took the “anytime test” [which means you can take it any time] for college students on jeopardy.com in October 2020. In January, they invited me to take a proctored test over Zoom to ensure that I wasn’t cheating, which I also performed well on, so I advanced to the next stage, a mock game over Zoom where I competed against other applicants and shared some anecdotes like I would on the show. I felt good about my performance since I’d played well in the mock game and practiced my anecdotes in advance, but I didn’t get a call back for months, so I assumed I hadn’t been chosen.
Then around June, I got a call out of the blue from a contestant coordinator to confirm that I was still eligible and willing to be on “Jeopardy!” since I hadn’t been chosen yet, but I was in the final contestant pool. It was super exciting, but I tried not to get my hopes up. I got the actual call in October (the day before I turned 21!) to inform me that I was chosen for the “Jeopardy! National College Championship,” and that they’d fly me out to Los Angeles in just five weeks.
Q. How did you prepare for the show?
A. I basically dropped all my responsibilities to study. I watched multiple episodes of “Jeopardy!” each day (and practiced my buzzer stance and clear speaking while watching), memorized lists of things like state capitals and presidents, read up on wagering strategy and especially focused on the categories that I felt weak at.
I even practiced trivial things like watching games with all the lights on and wearing formal shoes to mimic the stage experience or saying big bets aloud so that I wouldn’t freeze up on the show if I had to do that.
Q. What are the rules of the buzzer and did you get practice rounds to get your rhythm going?
A. The buzzer is one of the most important and underrated parts of gameplay. You could know every single answer, but not win a dollar if you don’t have buzzer skills. I figured that since I’d been chosen for the show, I and all the other contestants had a decent amount of trivia knowledge, but that none of our buzzer skills were guaranteed, so I should work on those. I bought the “Jeopardy!” community favorite book “Secrets of the Buzzer” for research-based buzzer methods.
My biggest takeaways were to hold the buzzer in a relaxed position at my waist, to buzz with my thumb, to practice visual reaction speed with online tests and to watch the lights that signal to contestants to buzz rather than to buzz by ear.
You can’t buzz in until the host has finished reading the entire clue or else you’ll be locked out for a quarter of a second, so you need to be incredibly precise with your timing. We got practice rounds before taping, but I wish they’d been longer – I was glad to have practiced buzzing so much at home so that it wasn’t novel to me.
Q How did you become a fan of the show? Did you watch it with family growing up? Something else?
A. My first exposure to trivia games was in elementary school. I’d transferred schools quite unwillingly for a magnet program, and one thing that sweetened the transition was a “Jeopardy!”-style game called “It’s Comprehensive,” run by my fourth-grade teacher, Mr. Weiner. Everyone in his class got to play a different role in the game, like tallying the score or presenting comedic commercials, but I got to play as a contestant. I still remember years later how proud I was when I nearly swept a category on state nicknames, and that joy of learning got me to pursue more trivia games.
Q. Are there any behind-the-scenes details about the show you can share with our readers?
A. Because of COVID regulations, we couldn’t all be on the “Jeopardy!” set at once, so people who weren’t filming on the first day of quarterfinals went to the “Wheel of Fortune” stage and watched a livestream of the games. Tragically, they did not let us spin the wheel, but I had a great time chatting with my fellow contestants and watching the games.
There’s a game in the “Jeopardy!” community where you try to blindly guess the Final Jeopardy! response from only the category before the clue is read, so when we were on the “Wheel” stage, I offered $20 fresh from my wallet if anyone could get a correct blind guess. I never had to pay up, but we had a fun time debating our blind guesses. It was awesome to get to watch tons of “Jeopardy!” episodes with people who all loved the show so much and who were very good at it.
Q. Did anything at UVA prepare you to be a contestant?
A. There’s a certain clue which I was very proud of getting because of its relevance to UVA, but I can’t say more about it until the episode has aired.
Q. Where will you be and whom will you be with when you tune in for your appearance?
A. The UVA Classics Department has helped me reserve a big theater for a viewing party, and I’ll be inviting my friends, professors, classmates, fellow classicists and people from Brown Residential College. My parents are going to have their own viewing party up in Northern Virginia.
Q. Is there anything you would like to share with our readers?
A. I give my compliments to the hairstylists, makeup artists and wardrobe stylists, who were so kind to me and who, I think, did a great job styling me. They had fascinating stories to tell about working behind the scenes in Hollywood that really distracted me from my nerves and they were great about letting me have control over my appearance.
Everyone behind the scenes on “Jeopardy!” was so kind and helpful, which made for an amazing experience.
Original source can be found here.
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