Imagine yourself as a contestant on “Jeopardy!”
You take the category “‘Jeopardy!’ contestants” for $1000.
And the answer is: “More than 12 years.”
BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
In the form of a question: “How long did it take John Reiss to become a ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant?”
DING! DING! DING! DING!
You’ve just won $1,000!
Of course, that won’t be one of the questions Tuesday when Reiss, a Hawaii resident since 2012, makes his debut on the show; “Jeopardy!” airs live at 4:30 p.m. Reiss has been working on getting there ever since he took the show’s entry level “anytime exam” for the first time in 2010.
“It’s a multistep process,” Reiss explained recently. “Anyone can take the ‘anytime exam’ on the ‘Jeopardy!’ website, and if you score above a certain threshold then you might get invited to do a proctored short answer exam over Zoom. If you do well enough on that, there’s another kind of more auditiony thing, where they watch you with the simulated board, more like an actual game. If you pass that, then you’re put into the contestant pool for two years.”
The bad news is that anyone who is still in the contestant pool when their two years end has to start over at the beginning.
That happened to Reiss.
“I was actually in the contestant pool in the past for that two-year period but didn’t get the call. This time, though, it went by pretty quickly for me. I did the ‘anytime exam’ in October, and then the next couple of steps happened about a month after that. In February, they told me that I’d made it onto the show.”
Whatever the outcome or duration of his time on the show may be, Reiss is generous in sharing lessons learned that can help other Hawaii residents get their best shot on “Jeopardy!”
First of all, competitive trivia experts have the best chance.
“A lot of people who are on the show are on trivia league teams and pub quizzes and things like that. I used to do that when I went to law school here. Me and my friends would pretty regularly do bar trivia (contests) at the bars in Chinatown, back when it was more happening before COVID.”
Second, only knowing what you know isn’t enough.
“I’ve just always been interested in random facts and things like that. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been good at geography and history and subjects like that, and I’m the kind of guy who spent hours on Wikipedia going down hyperlink wormholes — a brain full of useless facts — but I know that there are weak areas. When I got the call that I would be on the show, I went on the J! Archive website (j-archive.com), which has all the previous episodes of the show archived, to see what my weak areas were.”
Reiss also recommends a book, “Secrets of the Buzzer: A manifesto on buzzer speed for quiz and game show contestants,” written by Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel.
“When you’re up there, with the other contestants, all three of you probably know what all of the answers ‘in the form of a question’ are for most of the answers because you’re all roughly equally intelligent,” Reiss said. “The buzzer is really the main thing because whoever buzzes first is the one who gets to answer. Learning about buzzer strategy and reaction time and things like that is very important.”
Reiss’ appearance on “Jeopardy!” comes as he is working as the academic editor for the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Waikiki, serving as an active volunteer with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and studying for a doctorate in education at National University in San Diego. He is also an avid traveler who has visited more than 50 countries and taught college-level classes in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
And, back to the “Jeopardy!” format, the final answer is: Antarctica.
And, in the form of a question, “Which of the seven continents has John Reiss not visited yet?”
