When Chapel Hill High School alumnus Charles Yu was three years old he used the television show Jeopardy! to help him learn English after his family moved to the United States from China. Now, 28 years later, Yu walked away from the October 30 episode of Jeopardy! in second place with $2000.
Yu, a statistical analysis systems consultant in Hyattesville, Maryland, auditioned for the show after years of competing in both high school and college level quiz bowl competitions.
Yu has always enjoyed the part of trivia that requires the memorization of seemingly random tidbits of information that others might overlook or deem useless.
“I’ve always enjoyed learning things that may or may not be otherwise useful to know,” Yu said, “and the ability to go to a bar and win a gift card by remembering the name of the former Domino’s Pizza mascot from the 1980s and early 1990s or the capital of Belarus was sort of a fun byproduct of that.”
The answers are The Noid and Minsk respectively, for those wondering.
Despite being skilled in trivia, Yu says his getting onto Jeopardy! was based more on sheer luck than on talent alone.
“Once or twice a year, they have an online test, and anyone who hasn’t already been on the show can sign up,” Yu said. “On test day, you just log in at the time of the test and they give you 50 clues, and you get 15 seconds to type in your answer for each one.”
After the online test, a certain number of people are placed into the pool to be chosen to audition for the show.
The qualifications to be chosen for this pool of names have never been officially stated by Jeopardy! producers, but fans and users speculate that the pool is made up of all those who “pass” the online test with at least 35 out of 50 questions correct.
From this pool of names, Yu was chosen along with nearly 400 other trivia fanatics to take part in the Washington D.C. branch of the national Jeopardy! auditions.
After the auditions are held, applicants are placed in yet another pool of names for 18 months to be chosen at random to compete at any time.
“So in summary, pass the online test, maybe get an audition and then maybe get the call,” Yu said.
Yu was chosen in July to take part in a filming date in August. He said that the whole process of filming the episode was done in one long nerve-wracking day.
“When you think you couldn’t get any more excited or nervous, the part of the theme song that everyone knows drops and Johnny Gilbert says the iconic ‘This…is…Jeopardy!’,” Yu said, “and I was just barely holding it together when Johnny announced my occupation and name. In the end, we got out of the studio probably around 4 PM, so we were in there for close to nine hours.”
Yu recounted one experience during the filming process that he found especially eye-opening.
“We had our makeup done. It was the first time I’ve ever worn makeup,” Yu said, “I don’t know how about half of the population does it every day.”
As for his plans post Jeopardy! fame, Yu hopes to enter a program that would allow him to become a certified math teacher.
“I had some great teachers and mentors at Chapel Hill High,” Yu said, “some of whom might be reading this–you know who you are–hello!”
Yu encourages anyone interested to audition for the show if they are able, despite the uncertainty and randomness of the whole process.
“Just do it,” Yu said. “Sign up for the test because there’s nothing to lose.”
