‘How to succeed at Jeopardy!’ from an alumna who competes this week

You won’t catch adjunct lecturer Lisa Brown on campus. The alumna teaches FIU anthropology and sociology courses strictly online and even lives out of state.

But come Oct. 1, millions of viewers will see her in action as she takes on two other contestants on Jeopardy!

The long-running program – its current incarnation started 41 years ago - remains one of the country’s most-popular game shows.

Brown taped her appearance earlier this year and is forbidden to reveal significant details prior to its airing. She cannot, for example, divulge if she won and returned for additional episodes, in which of the subject categories she might have excelled or even if she aced “final Jeopardy” as part of the program’s climactic ending. But she can say she had a blast.

“It was really a great adventure and so much fun,” she shares. “All of the contestants were so nice. It didn't even feel like we were competing against each other, which obviously we were, but everybody was cheering for everybody else.”

The program, which airs every weekday and has a total weekly audience of 20 million (not counting Saturday reruns), pits brainy people against one another in a sophisticated trivia contest that can lead to tens of thousands of dollars for the champion.

Questions – which on Jeopardy! are actually called “answers,” while the responses from competitors are framed in the form of a question – revolve around everything from history, geography, literature and science to entertainment and sports.

Brown spilled enough deets to suggest how others might land a spot and demo their smarts on national television.

Try and try again

A lifelong Jeopardy! fan who watches nightly with her physician-husband and their 5-year-old son – the couple met during trivia night at a bar in Coconut Grove – Brown first tried out for the show some 10 years ago but didn’t make it.

Fast forward, and she says snagging a berth requires “a combination of luck and skill.”

Annually, around 120,000 to 130,000 people take the free online test. From there, roughly 2,500 to 3,000 advance to an interview and a live game of “fake Jeopardy!,” as Brown calls it, both over Zoom. Only about 400 secure a coveted position – much better than Powerball odds but miles from a sure thing.

Act natural

A decade ago, much of the tryout was in-person. “I just remember them asking me questions and feeling kind of nervous and tripping over my words,” Brown recalls.

The difference this time? Remaining calm and cool. “I was able to answer the questions a little bit more confidently,” says the now-seasoned adjunct faculty member.

Which comes back to Brown’s top advice for those who make it beyond the initial test: “It sounds really trite to say,” she acknowledges, “just be confident and be yourself.”

Forget cramming

With millions of potential questions in the mix, studying assiduously in advance of the show makes little sense. Instead, general knowledge gleaned through education and a life of curiosity prepare one to compete.

Brown earned an MA in Asian studies from FIU in 2019 and a doctoral degree in anthropology in 2022 (the two were part of a dual-degree program), which required high-level coursework and led to an academic investigation that involved oveseas travel.

“My dissertation was about a caste-based minority community in Japan,” she explains. In the context of performing well on a TV game show, “I'm sure it was helpful to immerse myself in in that [obscure research topic] as well the years I spent doing my Ph.D.”

Make the buzzer your friend

While Brown eschews memorizing specific royal lineages or the lyrics to Taylor Swift songs – the latter having commanded its own category last year – she concedes there is one all-important thing every contestant needs to master: the buzzer.

“The biggest preparation that I did was trying to simulate the use of a buzzer because that's a big part of Jeopardy,” she says. “Most of the contestants have a pretty good, broad knowledge base and know a lot of the answers, but it's just a matter of can you ring in first.”

To practice, Brown used a toilet-paper dispenser, the cylindrical contraption found in many home bathrooms that has a mechanical push button on either end. Watching along to episodes of Jeopardy! in anticipation of her appearance, “I pushed that down whenever I was trying to ‘ring’ in for a question. That kind of helped with reflex and accuracy.”

Unbeknown to the viewing public, ringing in early counts against a contestant – a light flashes to signal “go” only after the host finishes reading – and momentarily blocks him or her, thereby giving the others an extra few-hundreths of a second to respond.

“The buzzer is the hardest thing to practice and can really be the determiner,” she says of who ultimately wins.

No great expectations

Now, with her students and the rest of the world about to learn her fate, Brown dutifully remains mum on the outcome. She does, however, share the one objective with which she went into the exciting venture.

Rather than dreaming of a huge jackpot, she aimed small and put on her best reserve – such demeanor being a hallmark of Jeopardy! contestants, she confirms.

“I tried to keep my goal modest,” she states before admitting that, for her, logging success is mostly about what doesn't happen: “I just don't want to embarrass myself and become a meme.”

I guess we'll find out this week.

Jeopardy! is syndicated nationally and runs on local broadcast networks at different times in each market. Check local listings for program time and channel. In the Miami area, it airs weeknights at 7:30 p.m. on the ABC affiliate. The latest episodes can also been seen on streaming services Hulu and Peacock via the Jeopardy.com website.