On the first day of tapings, the Kohl Center was buzzing with press and excited contestants. While they geared up for the big show, I was gearing up for something else entirely - my interview with Alex Trebek, a request granted because I was writing this story. When we were finally face to face, my questions led to a brief, but scintillating, conversation about cheese, cheeseheads, and
Ian's mac-and-cheese pizza.
I sensed a pattern.
Trebek dared to say that California might rival Wisconsin in cheese production, but he redeemed himself by acknowledging the deliciousness of Ian's signature slice. "I'm practically native now," he said.
After a round of practice play, the first three contestants took their places, and the audience filed in. Many brought hand-painted signs, such as one reading, "I'm skipping Math 341 for
Jeopardy!" Sign-holders each received a number and were told when to flash their signs, making it seem as though the episodes were taped with different audiences.
That, I learned, is just one of the production details unknown to the viewers watching at home. They also don't know that Trebek wanders around during commercial breaks, taking questions from the audience or telling jokes, or that contestants have unlimited time to settle on a Final Jeopardy! wager. They also can't see the panel of writers that act as judges in the case of a dispute over an answer. If the judges can't settle a dispute on site, they connect via satellite to an exclusive, ten-thousand-book
Jeopardy! library located in Los Angeles, where writers are on call to find a solution. Learning about that made me curious about where
Jeopardy! clues come from, and I found out when I met head writer Gary Johnson.
"All of your waking hours are involved in [writing clues],"he says. "If you're reading something, watching something on television, if you're listening to something on NPR - you always have a pen and a piece of paper, and you make little notes to yourself." Born before the age of computers and the Internet, Johnson always turns to books first. But, he says, topics about pop culture or food often lead writers out of the library and onto the Web for information.
During the fourth taping of the first day, the UW's Shah finally took the stage. She flew through many of the questions and led through most of the game. By the time Final Jeopardy! rolled around, Shah was trailing the leading player by just $400. But after the final category "Famous Austrians" was revealed, she wagered conservatively, and even having the right answer wasn't enough to capture a spot in the semi-finals.
Students from Marquette, Harvard, and Mississippi State University played in the final round of the tournament, and the title went to MSU.
Still, Shah should be proud. Obviously, not just anyone (myself included) is
Jeopardy! material. In attendance at Friday's tapings, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz '81 seemed especially impressed with the contestants. "One student had three majors," he noted, adding, "Well, I had three, too: the Rathskeller, Picnic Point, and Camp Randall. I've been watching the show since I was a little kid," he said, "but I know I'm not going to be chosen as a contestant, so this is as close as I'm gonna get."
Having already tried my hand at being a contestant, I knew it was also the closest I would ever get. But that was all right with me - after all, I got to discuss cheese with Alex Trebek.
Vanessa de Bruijn, who graduated in May with a degree in journalism and mass communication, served as an editorial intern for
On Wisconsin during the past academic year.