Local man set for 'Jeopardy!'
A Slippery Rock High School graduate will have his knowledge and quick thinking tested this week on “America’s Favorite Quiz Show.”
Dylan Parson, a senior at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, will appear on Tuesday’s episode of “Jeopardy!” The long-running quiz show is on 7 p.m. weekdays on WPXI, Channel 11.
Parson said he has been a fan of the show for years and has a good memory for trivial information.
“That’s always been one of my talents, which has never been particularly practical in the past,” he said.
Though the episode was filmed Aug. 26, Parson said his contract prohibits him from telling anyone how he did before it airs. Since the show tapes five episodes each day, it is possible that he won Tuesday’s show and goes on to appear on Wednesday.
Not just anyone can get on the show. The screening process for candidates has two stages.
Once a year, the show hosts an online quiz that is free and open for anyone to take. The quiz consists of 50 questions and has a time limit of 15 seconds per question.
Out of the 70,000 people to take the online quiz, a couple thousand are chosen to do in-person interviews.
After taking the test earlier in the year, Parson was selected to advance and in July he traveled to Atlanta where he did an interview and took another 50-question test, this time on paper.
The interviews are to ensure the candidates are fairly personable, he said.
One tradition on the show is host Alex Trebek’s short interviews with the contestants after the first commercial break. To be chosen for the show, contestants must provide several interesting anecdotes to share during the interview segment.
He had gotten to the interview stage for one of the college student tournaments two years ago, but did not get selected. This time he got a phone call only a couple weeks later notifying him of his selection.
Toward the end of August, Parson, his girlfriend and seven family members all traveled to Los Angeles for the filming.
Parson said he enjoyed everything about the experience.
“It was kind of a star struck experience meeting Alex Trebek. I would say he is a normal, grandfatherly person,” he said.
While being successful on the show requires knowledge on a wide variety of topics, it also requires quick thinking under stress, and quick fingers to be able to buzz in first and not buzz in too early.
“There were a lot of people that clearly knew the answers to things, but their thumb didn’t go fast enough,” he said.
