Jeopardy! is a television game show we all know and love. Every watcher of the show has thought about how easy or hard it would be to become a contestant on the show at least once. You’ve probably caught yourself answering the questions along with the contestants on TV and thinking, “I’m good at this!” Well, maybe you are even better than you think!
If being a contestant on Jeopardy! is a dream of yours or an item on your bucket list, you should definitely apply. But what are the chances of being accepted and entering the competition to win a large sum of money by playing a televised trivia game? Let’s investigate it together!
What Does it Take to Get on Jeopardy!? The Audition Process
People who want to get on the Jeopardy! stage and answer trivia questions in front of a live studio audience have to go through some screening processes. These processes may differ depending on the particular championship, as well as other factors.
Requirements
The requirements differ depending on the show. If you want to appear on a regular episode of Jeopardy!, you need to be at least 18 years old. If you’d like to appear in the College Championship, you must be a full-time college student with no previous bachelor’s degree. If you’d like to participate in the Teen Tournament, you must be between the ages of 13 and 17.
The entry requirements don’t stop there! In order to appear on Jeopardy!, you need to be a complete television game show virgin. That means that you cannot have appeared on any game show broadcasted on national TV in the past year. The rules are even stricter for frequent reality TV show stars.
With that in mind, you also cannot be affiliated with Sony Pictures Entertainment or Jeopardy! in any way, shape, or form. That means you cannot be an employee of the company or its subsidiaries or related to an employee. You are also not eligible to apply to be on Jeopardy! if you’ve already been on an episode of the show. They can invite you to come back, but should you submit an application, it will not be considered.
Online Test
Before contestants get invited to in-person auditions, they need to do an online test. The test consists of 50 trivia questions that come in the form of actual questions, unlike those on the show. Based on previous practices confirmed by the show, it is assumed that you need to answer 35 questions right to pass the test and receive an invitation to the auditions.
In-Person Auditions
In-person auditions are a lot more nerve-wrecking, though definitely exciting. At first, a coordinator appointed by Jeopardy! explains how the game works, what the rules are, what is expected of the contestants, and so on. Then, the contestants must answer a series of 50 trivia questions. Once again, it is widely assumed that 35 out of 50 is the passing score, but no official source has confirmed this. Those who pass the test can proceed to the fun part of the audition.
What I call the “fun part” is a mock game. That’s when players can split into groups of three and experience playing the game. At this stage, what’s important is your presence and energy on stage. The coordinators already know that you can answer the questions. Now, you have to exhibit confidence and show that you’ve got what it takes to be a media personality, even just for one episode.
Those who pass all three tests get placed into a contestant pool. The Jeopardy! team can pull people out of the same contestant pool for the next year and a half. You can expect to receive a callback at any point in those 18 months. If the time has passed and you haven’t heard back, you can submit another application.
What Is a Passing Score on the Jeopardy! Test?
In the past, the passing score for the Jeopardy! test was 35 out of 50. After being confronted with this number, the Jeopardy! team denied that it is so. At least for the in-person auditions, anyway. As a result, it is impossible to tell what the passing grade is. It is safe to assume that there is a certain minimum score that Jeopardy! coordinators look for, but we do not know what it is. We can only speculate and say that you need to answer at least 75% of the questions right in order to be considered for an in-person audition.
What Is Your Chance to Get on Jeopardy! if You Try Out?
A man by the name of Michael Haley went on Quora to answer this question about getting on Jeopardy!. He shared his experience, stating that the online test only gives you 15 seconds to answer each question, making it significantly harder than I thought it would be. He also pointed out that the online test uses some of the harder questions from the show to really weed out the weakest players. Then, those who score above (approximately) 70% get placed in a pool of potential contestants. The showrunners pick out the people that will proceed to the next round of auditions at random. At the time of Michael Haley’s audition (around the early 2000s), there were over 100,000 people who submitted the online test.
Michael mentioned that he had heard getting into Harvard is easier than getting on Jeopardy!, based purely on the number of applicants versus the number that actually gets on the show. Another person by the name of John Leavy supported this claim by sharing his experience. He said that it took him 25 years from the time he first passed the test and auditioned to the time he got on the show. He also mentioned that coordinators shared that they preferred minorities over classic “middle aged white male nerd(s)”.
Jeff Larson, another person that tried out for the show, provided a numerical answer. Jeff wrote that out of the 40 or 50 people that got to the final round of auditions, only 2 got to walk the Jeopardy! stage. That means that even after passing all the rounds of auditions (which is already statistically improbable), your chances of being invited on the show are approximately 4%.
Another precise answer was provided by Jennifer Quail, who auditioned to be on the show in 2019. Out of the 80,000 people that took the online test around the time Jennifer was auditioning, 2,500 were invited to attend the in-person auditions. That’s approximately a 3% success rate. Out of those 2,500, approximately 400 got to be on the show, making it a 16% success rate. That tells us that your chances are higher once you get to the in-person auditions, but even then, they are only 16%. Plus, there is only a 3% chance you will get through the online test anyway.
But there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Jennifer Quail showed us that you can beat the odds and win over $200,000 on that Jeopardy! stage! Quail came back in the beginning of 2021 and walked away with another handsome chunk of money—$100,000. With a little bit of luck and determination, anyone can follow in Jennifer’s footsteps.
Final Words
It might be difficult to get on Jeopardy!, but it’s not impossible! If you consider yourself a hardcore trivia fan, you might as well try your luck the next time auditions open. After all, according to the rumors, you only need to score above 70% and be among the 3% of people who get through to the next stage. Why not try your luck? Maybe you can even be the next big champ! And if you do make it, here’s some insider scoop on what you need to know!
If you’ve ever auditioned to be on Jeopardy!, do let us know how it went! How many questions were there? Were they difficult? Here is a question for those who haven’t auditioned yet: Would you ever do it? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
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