ANDREWS AFB, Md. –
Let's be honest: Most of us nighttime channel surfers stumble upon the television game show "Jeopardy!" once in a while. We hope that maybe, just maybe, this is the night they'll have "Gary Busey movies" as a category, only to be disappointed to see they decided to go with "Organic Chemistry."
With our hopes crushed, we continue on to watch an episode of "House" that we've already seen twice that week. Just as most of us don't connect with the deep complexities of the Periodic Table, we also can't connect with what kinds of challenges a person must overcome in order to make it on a show like "Jeopardy!"
That is, until now, since Andrews Air Force Base just so happens to be home to one of those rare individuals.
Captain Marcus J. Jackson, 316th Wing Executive Officer, said he's wanted to be on "Jeopardy!" for as long as he can remember, but up until recently, the stars had never aligned. This Wednesday, his "Jeopardy!" appearance will air on WJLA channel 7 at 7:30 p.m. and at the Sports Page.
"I'd always played along while watching the television show," said Captain Jackson. "I owned the home game for the computer, but I never had been able to make the in-person tryouts. When I was stationed in Wyoming, they added an online version of the contestant test. It's a brutal 50-question, 50-category test and you get 15 seconds to answer each question. Unlike the show, you don't know the categories, so you can't really think in advance. This year was the fourth time I took the test and the first time I felt like I did remotely well."
In order to be selected for the game show "TV Guide" rated #2 on its "50 Greatest Game Shows Ever," Captain Jackson needed to do better than "well." Captain Jackson said that, out of the three million people who take the test or tryout in person each year, "Jeopardy!" calls back only about 1500 people.
"At the callback, I started with a second 50-question test. Unlike the online test, every one of the 1,500 people take the same test, so they can compare us against each other. I also played a version of the game at the tryout, and then did the interview portion of the show as well. I figure they know I'm a nerd, but they wanted to make sure I was the kind of nerd they can show on TV. From these 1,500, only about 450 people make it on TV."
Sure enough, Captain Jackson got the call that he made the show. Out of a pool of 3 million people, he was one of the 450 people each year who get the nod. To put that into perspective, a person has better odds of hitting a hole in one (1:5,000) or hurting themselves mowing the lawn (1:3,623) than they do of making it on "Jeopardy!"
"When I found out I was going to be on the show, I had about six weeks to prepare. My wife Teresa bent over backwards to help me out. She and I really buckled down; we studied about an hour a night, between quizzing me on a huge variety of subjects, reading about the things I knew were on 'Jeopardy!' all the time Greek and Roman gods, geography, the U.S. presidents, state nicknames, movie history, opera, art, etc. I watched the game, kept score and practiced with the buzzer. The end result of all of this was that I'd come home from work around
7 p.m., cook dinner and sit down around
8 p.m. to study. I'd study for an hour and a half, and it'd be bed time. During the weekends, we'd do about three hours a day. My wife was a saint."
Finally, this past July, the big day arrived. Captain Jackson and his wife traveled to Los Angeles for the filming. Once he got all of the necessary paperwork out of the way, it was onto the set for a few practice runs with the buzzers to give the contestants a chance to work on their game rhythm. This, according to Captain Jackson, helped him a great deal once the lights were on, the adrenaline was pumping and Alex Trebek was the one asking the questions.
"Once I was on stage for real, I calmed down. I had to ... there's no time to be nervous. The show is much quicker paced than it seems at home. You focus on the question that's displayed, try to figure out the answer and then wait to hear the last word of the question from Trebek; I couldn't buzz in early. If I buzzed early, the buzzer becomes inactive for about one-third of a second," Captain Jackson said. "I was far from the smartest person in the room, but I did very well at ringing in, and was very successful as a result."
"In hindsight, the experience was incredible. Everyone with 'Jeopardy!' was extremely supportive and super nice. They made every contestant feel like a million bucks, considering that we were all worried about looking like fools in front of 9 million TV viewers," Captain Jackson said.
So how successful was he? That he can't say. Come to the Sports Page Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. to watch his appearance on the big screen and cheer him on in person.