Chapter One: What Is ‘Jeopardy!’? CHAPTER ONE What Is Jeopardy!?
“Did you always love Jeopardy!?”

“Did you win a lot of money?”

“Are you famous?”

First things first. Some of you may be wondering, What is Jeopardy! anyway—and why am I about to read a book about one of its top contestants? What exactly is all the fuss about? Well, let me give you a bit of an introduction to the game show that landed me in the national media spotlight and a brief history, so you can see for yourself how cool this quiz show is, and why, today, a lot of people know my name.

Jeopardy! first aired on TV way back in March 1964. This quiz show is unique because of its hook. Unlike the usual format of a quiz show, in which a host asks questions and contestants provide answers, Jeopardy! reverses that model. Contestants are shown the answer, and to win, they have to provide the question. For example, if a contestant chooses a square on the game board in a category called “Breakfast Cereals,” the Jeopardy! host would read the spot on the board with a clue that might say, “The mascot of this cereal lives on the SS Guppy.” And the correct answer would be “Who is Cap’n Crunch?” That’s why I named the adult edition of this book In the Form of a Question.

Each game has three contestants who compete through three rounds—Jeopardy!, Double Jeopardy!, and Final Jeopardy!. During the Jeopardy! and Double Jeopardy! rounds, six categories with five clues each, worth different amounts of money, are shown on a big board, and as the dollar value gets higher, the clues get increasingly difficult. When a clue is selected, the first person to hit their buzzer gets the first shot at providing the solution (so you have to be fast as well as knowledgeable—more on that on page 15). If they’re correct, they get the money from that clue, and they get to pick which clue is revealed next. For the Jeopardy! round, the winner of the previous game chooses both the category and the level. For the Double Jeopardy! round, the contestant with the lowest score picks first.


A typical Jeopardy! game board.

The Final Jeopardy! round operates a bit differently from the first two rounds. Any contestant with zero dollars at the end of Double Jeopardy! is eliminated from the game, and Final Jeopardy! only has a single clue. The host announces the category before the round begins, which gives contestants a moment to consider how much they might know about it, and decide how much of their winnings they will choose to wager on their answer. Then the clue is revealed, and all the contestants write down their solution. If they get it right, they win the amount they wagered; otherwise they lose it. After all that, whoever has the most money is declared the winner. That day’s winner returns the next day as the champion. When contestants talk about their “runs,” they are referring to how many games in a row they won, keeping their “champion” status intact!

My love of Jeopardy! began when I was a kid. I watched it with my parents. Back then, it was hosted by Alex Trebek (he hosted the show longer than anyone else—for thirty-five years!). For me, as for so many others, Jeopardy! has been in the background of my life for as long as I can remember—a calm, comforting routine: three contestants, sixty-one clues, three Daily Doubles. Every weeknight, month after month, year after year. It was a place that valued the same things I’d been taught to value: curiosity, collegiality, rule following, and, above all, a sense that knowledge was fun! I always believed that I would compete on the show someday. While I didn’t know what would happen once I did, I knew I wouldn’t regret finding out.

I first auditioned for the show in 2008. As I recall, Jeopardy! had only recently begun offering their “entrance exam” online. It consisted of a timed test that had fifty questions, with fifteen seconds to answer each question. I was so excited. I crammed for a few days before, and (I’ll admit) the first time, I kept a few tabs open in my browser with some things I might be able to check within fifteen seconds (Oscar winners, that sort of thing). I took the test every year for almost ten years. A few times I made it as far as the final, in-person audition. Then, for the next eighteen months, I’d live in hope that I would get the call to say I was in. When the call didn’t come, I’d start the process over from the beginning.

I wasn’t frustrated, because I knew that it was a numbers game and way more people qualify every year than can be on the show, so I just always told myself the longer it takes for me to get on, the more I’ll have learned, and the better I’ll do!

In 2017, I took a break from my Jeopardy! dream. A few years later, I decided to give it another go. One more time, I made it all the way to the in-person audition (although this time it was on Zoom). And then, again, I waited. It paid off. I got the call! In September 2021, I boarded a plane in Oakland, California, and flew to Los Angeles to be a contestant. I was going to be on Jeopardy!

I did well on the show. Really well! If I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t be writing this book about my experience. Not that I wasn’t ever nervous. Especially flying down there for my first taping when I realized that, whatever happened, I would never again have the possibility of a Jeopardy! experience to look forward to. That actually stressed me out, because I had spent my whole life waiting for this moment. I also knew that there was so much luck involved (remember the buzzer?) that the most likely outcome was going to be me playing one game and coming in second or third, and then it would all be over. So I told myself that I needed to go down there with a mindset of simply enjoying the experience. I was going to have fun, and the outcome would be whatever it was.

Have you ever been in a situation like that? All I had been thinking about was the possibility of losing and how upset I would be. And I just sort of realized that being afraid would be a terrible way to spend this day I’d been dreaming about. Of course, I still had some anxiety that day (and others), but I practiced telling myself to just stay in the moment and let those anxious thoughts go whenever they came into my head.

So… I played from November 2021 to January 2022, and then I got to play again during the Tournament of Champions in November 2022. And here’s an interesting fact: the only person who ever won more games than I did was Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings when he was on the show in 2004—and he was the host when I was a contestant!

Here are a few of my stats:

• Won forty games in a row
• Second-longest winning streak in Jeopardy! history
• Received more than one million dollars in prize money
• Top-ten highest-earning (seventh) game show contestant on any American game show in history
• Most successful woman contestant to ever compete on the show

Now, I’m not listing these to brag. And these stats don’t capture what I really took away from my time on Jeopardy! But they certainly caught people’s attention. And some of those people started asking me a question, one that I’d been asked many times before, especially back when I was in school. The question was “How did you get so smart?”

For the record, it was not a question I enjoyed being asked, but the more I’ve learned about what it takes to be considered smart, the more I have come to understand that “smart” isn’t simply something people are born with. There isn’t only one kind of smart. It’s not just about knowing facts and retaining them. It’s also about knowing what facts are important and being able to access them at the right times. I think there’s a lot of intelligence involved in figuring out a social life and managing relationships, in really listening to what people are asking. For example, sensing when your friends are looking for encouragement or advice, or whether or not they are just asking you to listen. That is an important type of intelligence. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses is also really important. In other words, “book smart” isn’t the only kind of smart.

Stick around, and I’ll tell you why—and what all of this has to do with you.