Jeopardy tryouts

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:20 pm

I'm curious about this. While we only went 6-4, 3 of our 4 starters made it through the Jeopardy test and into the audition/interview stage. Did any team have all four players make it? Did anyone else have 3?

insaneindian · Post by **insaneindian** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:45 pm

we had 2 from A team and 2 from B team

conker · Post by **conker** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:06 pm

insaneindian wrote:we had 2 from A team and 2 from B team

Wow, and they all made it past the pre-test? That's pretty impressive! When do you all find out whether you made it past the interview (whatever that is...I'm not too familiar with the whole Jeopardy tryout process)?

Did you make it, by the way?

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:11 pm

The process finishes after all the tryouts for a season are complete. Usually they tell people who the chosen ones are about a month before a taping (maybe a bit less) by sending them the fed ex package.

conker · Post by **conker** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:15 pm

E.T. Chuck wrote:The process finishes after all the tryouts for a season are complete. Usually they tell people who the chosen ones are about a month before a taping (maybe a bit less) by sending them the fed ex package.

So the pre-test and interview at HSNCT constitutes a complete a tryout?

BuzzerZen · Post by **BuzzerZen** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:24 pm

TJ had our three seniors make it past the college pre-test. Myself (a junior), a sophomore, and a freshman made it past the high school pre-test. And yeah, pre-test + buzzer practice/interview is the whole tryout.

Strongside · Post by **Strongside** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:33 pm

I took the college test and was pretty confident that I passed but if so I wasn't randomly chosen. I wish instead of randomly choosing people who passed, that they would have taken the people with the best scores but it doesn't matter that much as I am just glad that they came and that I got to experience trying out.

samer · Post by **samer** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:39 pm

First: If you held a buzzer in your hand on Saturday night for the J! folks, then you had a "complete" audition.

Second: The tournaments are different from the regular show, in that all the invites for the tournaments go out at once. I don't know if they still do the FedEx letter like they did last decade when I tried out, but they've said before that they will make every reasonable effort to get in touch with the people they've chosen (i.e., if the letter gets lost in the mail, they *will* contact you).

Anyways, as someone now "drowning in the contestant pool" for the regular show (I took the online test and had an audition in May), I wish everyone who took the test the best of luck.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:04 pm

samer wrote:First: If you held a buzzer in your hand on Saturday night for the J! folks, then you had a "complete" audition.

Second: The tournaments are different from the regular show, in that all the invites for the tournaments go out at once. I don't know if they still do the FedEx letter like they did last decade when I tried out, but they've said before that they will make every reasonable effort to get in touch with the people they've chosen (i.e., if the letter gets lost in the mail, they *will* contact you).

Anyways, as someone now "drowning in the contestant pool" for the regular show (I took the online test and had an audition in May), I wish everyone who took the test the best of luck.

Hey, Samer... I drowned in that pool last year.

I had a very good audition/interview in Atlanta back in Feb. 2005. They never called. Real bummer. I'll keep trying, though.

Sir Thopas · Post by **Sir Thopas** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:05 pm

One year's the limit; go ahead and take it again!

AndyShootsAndyScores · Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:08 pm

The only other person I recognized in my session besides my teammate was Will from Maggie A. There was one kid named Tom or Tim who did the best on the buzzer, mainly from a combination of buzzer skill and having 2 shy people as his opponents. They told us they would send us a FedEx package if we made it, but did not tell us when the show would start.

Captain Cullman · Post by **Captain Cullman** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:50 pm

I tried out two years ago and passed the test. I did not make it past the buzzer/interview round. I have not tried out since then because I became too old for high school jeopardy. Carter from Covenant Christian was at the same try out as I was, and he passed the test but did not make it to the show either.

Some girl from Hanceville made it onto the show a few years ago.

brownboy79 · Post by **brownboy79** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:59 pm

AndyBrindlee Mountain wrote:They told us they would send us a FedEx package if we made it, but did not tell us when the show would start.

Last year, taping was in early November and I found out in October. I had tried out a little bit later, near the end of June, but atleast for the Teen Tournament, everyone finds out at the same time.

thepowerofche · Post by **thepowerofche** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 10:19 pm

samer wrote:First: If you held a buzzer in your hand on Saturday night for the J! folks, then you had a "complete" audition.

That's actually kind of funny, the way you put it, because the buzzers weren't working there. We had to use those unimaginably annoying Jeopardy click-pens instead. Still, what it became obvious that mattered at the tryout was not ability and knowledge, but rather televisability and personality. Though I'd much rather them tell you if you didn't make it instead of just not sending you anything. I suppose I'll wait until February...

Zip Zap Rap Pants · Post by **Zip Zap Rap Pants** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 10:31 pm

Yea for college we had Xun and Lydia make it past the pretest, and for teen J! we had Will and Mark make it. 4 is pretty good I suppose, but considering we had 10 bullets in the barrel trying out from our school, I guess some of us had to get randomly drawn.

insaneindian · Post by **insaneindian** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 11:05 pm

conker wrote:Did you make it, by the way?

Nope.

brownboy79 · Post by **brownboy79** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 11:12 pm

insaneindian wrote: Nope.

No shame, lots of people get shafted by drawings. The system is stupid.

rchschem · Post by **rchschem** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:18 am

When I was on in '97, they said something like 25,000 people try out and only about 500 are selected, and that's for the regular show. Your odds are likely much worse for the high school or college shows, even though the applicant pool is smaller.

Passing the tryout is the easy part. Your folder has to make it out of the file cabinet. Good luck to everyone who tried out.

Eric

QuizBowlRonin · Post by **QuizBowlRonin** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:02 am

rchschem wrote:When I was on in '97, they said something like 25,000 people try out and only about 500 are selected, and that's for the regular show. Your odds are likely much worse for the high school or college shows, even though the applicant pool is smaller.

Passing the tryout is the easy part. Your folder has to make it out of the file cabinet. Good luck to everyone who tried out.

Eric

I passed a live tryout for the regular show back in December. I was told there by the producer that about 700 pass the audition i.e. have a file created for them, with about 400 getting on to the real show within a year of audition.

This year, I assume, is a bit different, since a large number of people may have qualified via the recent online pretest they had at jeopardy.com.

samer · Post by **samer** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:40 pm

QuizBowlRonin wrote:This year, I assume, is a bit different, since a large number of people may have qualified via the recent online pretest they had at jeopardy.com.

Actually, they changed the procedure; instead of random draws for auditions of 100+, they had random draws among people who passed the test for auditions of ~20, in which *every* person had the chance to play the mock game.

QuizBowlRonin · Post by **QuizBowlRonin** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 5:25 pm

samer wrote:
QuizBowlRonin wrote:This year, I assume, is a bit different, since a large number of people may have qualified via the recent online pretest they had at jeopardy.com.
Actually, they changed the procedure; instead of random draws for auditions of 100+, they had random draws among people who passed the test for auditions of ~20, in which *every* person had the chance to play the mock game.

Huh? I'm not quite understanding what you're saying.

In Birmingham we had a "brain bus" event with a 10 question pretest for about 1500 - you pass that, then the next day, we had that 50 question test with a cutoff with about 150 test takers. You pass that, you make the mock game, where everyone, provided you're not a psychopath, fills out the paperwork and enters the contestant pool.

I'm not sure if this is normally what happens, and I didn't take the online test because I'm in the contestant pool already.

mentalchocolate · Post by **mentalchocolate** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:36 pm

I personally do not like the element of randomness. I felt I did very well on the pre-test, but I was not selected for the next round. I wonder what the odds of being drawn are even if you pass the set score and also what the set score is on a 50 question test. I'm sure many great players weren't selected...not from doing poorly just luck not on their side. I just hope for better luck next year and I hope Jeopardy will host another tryout at HSNCT.