r/Jeopardy

This is Adam, from the Friday 10/2/26 show; I commented within the Game Recap thread with some more specific thoughts related to the game itself. This post is for anyone who cares to read it, but especially for those with aspirations to go on the show. I’ll spend most of it on how I prepared, what did/didn’t work and what it feels like in the days and weeks after losing in unfortunate fashion. Happy to answer questions in the comments.

Background and Prep

My story isn’t too different from a lot of other folks. I was the youngest of three and the child of two avid readers and smart people who was always told I had a knack for remembering things, was into “nerdy” stuff, etc. We watched Jeopardy here and there, but it wasn’t until 2013, when I spent some time after college caring for my ill father that Jeopardy became an absolute mainstay.

I first applied for the show around then and have either taken the test or been in the contestant pool every year since. All I can say is keep trying! I don’t think I nailed any of my auditions and flat out bombed one. But eventually I got the call which is all that matters. The first thing I did to prep was read this article (https://www.buzzerblog.com/thecall/). It does an excellent job laying out exactly what to expect.

While I was never “prepping” before the call, I’ve typically been in engaged in some sort of trivia for fun. I’ve been a regular on Sporcle for 15+ years, playing a lot of sports, pop culture and geography games specifically. I joined LearnedLeague exactly a year ago and have really gotten into the site, playing not just the main league but plenty of the off-season content as well. I also enjoy testing quizzes for both LL and other trivia leagues like QuiP and Buzz In (both of which I highly recommend!)

I had 6 weeks of dedicated study time after getting the call. Beyond continuing my other trivial pursuit, my plan was three-fold: play along with a couple old episodes a night for rhythm and timing, do lots of JArchive games to identify repeat questions and holes in my knowledge, and review flashcards for my areas of weakness. The flashcards were created to cover a combination of subjects my knowledge was shallow on and things I missed from older episodes that seemed likely to recur (or in many cases I saw come up multiple times as I continued to practice).

Here’s one big breakthrough I had: it’s important to make the distinction between things you kind of know and things you really know. Having heard of the right answer, or being 50/50 between options, doesn’t help live on stage in the same way it does at home. There you can tell yourself “I would’ve had that one”. That’s worth zero or even negative dollars in real life. And in general, I found studying stuff I had at least heard of to be a lot more efficient than things brand new to me. That’s not to say you shouldn’t do the latter, especially for the canon of questions they ask repetitively. But I think the fastest gains are from solidifying dormant or partial knowledge. So, while I did learn from scratch who Rimsky Korsakov was, I also finally learned the difference between Emerson and Thoreau rather than just guessing one or the other.

As a working parent, I would estimate I was studying 2-3 hours a day for the 6 weeks leading up to the show. I reviewed probably 700 or so J Archive games, buzzed along to 100ish episodes on TV and ended up with about 3000 flashcards to review on the Anki app. The flashcards were either lists of missed Q’s from previous  games, topic specific lists I created from study guides I found online, and a handful of premade decks for established lists like African capitals, bodies of water, Shakespeare play details, etc.

Flash carding led to the biggest gains and is the easiest to fit in across the day, but determining what your gaps are is helped a ton by just watching/playing old games. Since finishing my prep, I’d estimate there are 2 or 3 questions per match that I outright learned or solidified knowledge of in my studying. There was even a ToC rerun where I ran a category I would’ve blanked on before getting the call. On my match day, just one question (Burns) was one I knew from studying. But I have no regrets, that was the luck of the draw and my boards were plenty favorable to my interests. Well, except for the bit about missing Final Jeopardy by trying to manifest the answer as someone I studied up on. But I digress.

One thing I did not do, and frankly feel fine about, was buy a practice buzzer. It’s possible they can get you close enough to the real thing. But it’s ultimately a human operated system based on one person’s voice. It’s rhythm as much as it is reaction time. This might be survivorship bias since my buzzer stats ended up being quite good, but I put way more stock into how I would press the buzzer then when and tried many different stances/techniques. The one I used on the show came from a lot of trial and error. It really worked for me as it both felt natural and semi-concealed if I was buzzing or not since I held it below the podium while gripping my wrist with my off hand to keep my buzzer hand stable. This also let me buzz at a sideways angle, rather than downward, which from my purely non-scientific observation seemed quicker.

Tape Day (Non-Game)

I’ll keep this part short and sweet and avoid too many personal stories, but my memories of everything before the actual game are incredibly vivid and cherished. It’s unspeakably cool to be on the actual set you’ve seen all these years. The Green Room is like being on jury duty, but actually fun! Lots of waiting around, lots of procedure, but also the most unique way you’ll get to know ~11 other people, all of whom are like-minded and similarly thinking “Yes this is really happening”. Our group chat has been active and supportive of each other all week and I hope we can find excuses to stay in touch now that the episodes are out there.

The only sour part of the day pre-taping my game was my outfit(s). My first look was a sartorial green linen suit I bought for the occasion, paired with the burgundy patterned tie I wore at my wedding. Neither passed the camera test so I pivoted to my tried-and-true blue suit, which I managed to get salad dressing on the last bite of my lunch. So the third-choice grey suit it was, along with a tie I didn’t own, though was ultimately content with.

Seeing/stepping onto the Alex Trebek stage for the first time during rehearsals was when the nerves finally kicked in. They wore off quick, but I found this portion much more helpful for general acclimation to the stage than specifically for buzzer practice. It did give me some time to “scout” my opponents, which may have informed my category selection strategy in a different world, but ultimately didn’t with my boards. This goes by crazy fast and I can only remember a handful of the ~25 questions I was asked.  

The Game

I commented in the Game Recap thread most of my thoughts, including breaking down what went wrong on Final. You can find that here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Jeopardy/comments/1wvtuil/comment/pdij126/?context=3

The only things I’ll add are about my overall game strategy. Based on everything I’d heard, I intended to start buzzing when the lights go on at the end of the question, but be prepared to abandon them for when Ken’s voice trailed off if needed. That’s exactly as it played out; excluding uncontested gets, the times I rang in first were all cases where I went before I saw the lights go on. As alluded to before, I really found this part a complete feel thing and I wish I could explain it better since it’s the biggest edge you can gain.

My board approach was more or less the standard one these days; go bottom up in the first round, daily double hunt in the second round. Wagering wise, as my Daily Double % was higher than my Final Jeopardy %, I wanted to go as big as possible on any DD in a good category for me. That worked for my first DD (though I shot myself in the foot by losing money beforehand on misses), but my second one came closer to the end of the game when it was apparent the true DD wouldn’t benefit me that much on a make, and on a miss it would take me out entirely. So I made a mid-sized bet instead.

One thing that’s not apparent at home is that the post-game banter is your one chance to really chat with Ken, but it’s also when your head is foggiest. It’s a roughly 5-minute debrief that happens moments after the winner is announced and while it was great fun, I would’ve loved a second crack at that conversation. The shock was just too real to engage in that candor, and I had far more to say about why bad movies matter than I could muster in the moment.

The Aftermath

After the game, we all shook hands, quickly cleared the green room, I turned on my phone to see the contestant group chat was already firing and had a brief post-mortem with Rian on the way to find out families. I even took a couple of pictures with studio audience members. And while I was bummed, I still felt invigorated by the whole experience as I left for my red-eye flight home. My wife didn’t want to know the outcome, and I still hadn’t said anything either way other than that I wasn’t flying back to Culver City to tape more.

I got home the following morning, opened up my suitcase and all the emotions hit me immediately. Seeing the reminders of the past 24 hours (the swag bag, my rejected suits, the cue card Ken signs) brought it all up and the sense of finality that a dream had ended and the disappointment of coming so close, being in total control, and blowing it on a gettable question took over. I was bawling.

There was no hiding it from my wife at that point. I told her that I had it, but lost it. That I let her and my daughter down. And that I wasn’t OK, but that I would be. My wife said all the sane things a caring partner would to bring me back to earth a bit. I was less of a mess after the first couple of days, when losing was all I could think about. I still think “what if” every day. But with far less despair, regret or anger. I think my poker face in public when hyping up my appearance was pretty good, at least I hope it was.

The hardest part isn’t the money or being branded a “loser”, it’s the finality. Almost everyone who plays Jeopardy does it exactly once. It’s something I’ve visualized, dreamed of, and prepared to do well at. The realization that it was over, barring an unlikely Second Chance call, was tough to take. Because playing Jeopardy all dressed up under the bright lights against curious and intelligent opponents is pretty much the most fun thing I’ve ever done. For athletes and performers, there’s always another game or show to come. Jeopardy isn’t like that for most of us; it's a high you chase your whole life and passes in a flash. But I also know what a privilege and a joy it was to experience once.

My airdate itself was far more enjoyable than expected. As excited as everyone I talked to was for me all week, I wasn’t sure how it would feel to see it play out. It turns out, it was very cathartic and just a ton of fun to see. Having to hear your own voice and observe all your ticks isn’t great, but as Don Draper once said, that’s what the money is for! I'd only been able to remember about half of my makes and a third of the board overall, I can only imagine what a blur it is for multi-day champions. My phone was blowing up all night and without exception the only sentiment shared was pride and excitement, not disappointment.

Now the same cannot be said for the strangers on the internet. If you’re mature enough to not search your name on social media, or look at any comments sections, this is a non-issue. I lack that discipline, but thankfully have very thick skin when it comes to the thoughts of randos, so I took everything humorously. I also have the privilege of being male, women have it much worse. I mostly got folks saying how cocky I seemed. That they hated how I talked. I can't even disagree objectively and it could've been much worse. If you’re sensitive, but also curious about the public reaction, maybe outsource this to a friend or family member to screen out the worst offenders.

Sharing the experience with your tape-day buddies also helps put the entire thing into perspective. There is such an array of ways everyone performs on the show and they're the only people in a similar boat to you. You all have questions you want back, are experiencing similar whiplash from the personal and public reactions and at some point you all came up short on the stage. So there's something more authentic about the celebrations and commiserations from this group than even some of your closer friends.

There was one thing that despite the loss, I was always excited for: surprising my daughter on my air date. The first TV show she ever responded to was Jeopardy! It was among the safer options for “adult” TV to have on when she was very little and something about the lights, the numbers, the stage really appealed to her. She started off terrified by the Daily Double sound/graphic. That quickly turned to enthusiasm and passionate clapping. It went from the blue and purple show to Jeppary. The minor set dressing changes for Masters were soundly rejected by her as being wrong, so I’ve still never seen the 2025 edition. For a time, an episode of J! with low volume would soothe her right out on sleepless nights.

My daughter is almost 3 now. We only told her we had a special show to watch Friday night. I was reminded of her repeatedly on tape day, never more than when her name, Eloise, was the answer to a clue during Wednesday’s game. We named her when we were 20 weeks pregnant, found out she had Spina Bifida, would require in-utero surgery and would face lifelong challenges I never had to. Her name is very meaningful to us; I had liked it since hearing it as a teenager obsessed with the TV show Lost, but our ultimate inspiration was the 12^(th) century Heloise. A woman of letters, love, friendship and incredible intelligence. What better place to live up to those standards than America’s favorite quiz show.

So did she react with shock, beaming pride and unbridled excitement when she saw me on TV? Has she immediately internalized my goal for this to inspire her to a lifetime of curiosity? Of course not. She’s a toddler. It mostly confused her. By double jeopardy she wanted me to read her a book, and her biggest reaction of the night was for Arjun’s Daily Double. Not either of mine. But the morning after, while running our errands, she stopped me out of nowhere and said “You were on Jeppary!” and honestly, that’s all I needed.