On March 1, 2000, a dream came true for me: I taped an appearance on Jeopardy! It was the culmination of a yearlong saga. How did I do? Not allowed to say before the show airs. Be watching on your local Jeopardy! station on June 15 to find out how I did!
It all started sometime in the spring of 1999. I was watching Jeopardy! one night, as usual, when I saw a promo for their contestant search in Cincinnati in May. I figured they would never be any closer, and I could either spend the rest of my life shouting out the answers in my living room, or I could try to pass the qualification test. So I logged on to the Jeopardy! website and signed up for the contestant search. And pretty much forgot about it. Then, about a month later I came home from work to find a message on the answering machine from Glenn, a contestant coordinator, asking if I was still interested in trying out. I called him back and said yes, of course, and was told to report at 1:00 p.m. one day in May. I was told to show up promptly (no one would be admitted once the test was under way), dressed as I would for the show.