Princeton students in Jeopardy!: Not a trivial pursuit

At least five current Princeton students have found themselves behind a podium, buzzer in hand, waiting for the next prompt from Alex Trebek on the set of “Jeopardy.”

“It felt very good when I found out that I got on the show,” said David Walter ’11, who won the 2007 Jeopardy Teen Tournament with $75,000. “I had pneumonia at the time, so I was screaming, and then coughing a lot, and then screaming and coughing some more.”

Walter had to go through a long selection process, which included passing a preliminary online test and completing another trivia exam and mock game in invitational tryouts at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The others, Peter Severson ’09, Kunle Demuren ’11, Sandra Thomas ’10 and Reilly Kiernan ’10, a senior writer for The Daily Princetonian, went through a similar series of steps.

“It was a crazy process,” said Severson, who was a 2004 Teen Jeopardy semi-finalist. “They give you an audition time, and you have to hope you can show up on that day in the city.” Though Severson lived in South Dakota, he chose to audition in Nashville, Tenn. “But maybe it helped to be from a unique place,” he said. “When we were leaving auditions, we ran into the people from the show ... who said, ‘Oh, you’re the kid from South Dakota. You did well in there.’ ”

For Demuren, preparing for the show involved playing the Playstation version of the show, while for Kiernan it involved perusing “Trivial Pursuit” cards.

As they continued to gear up for the televised competition, the contestants and their families took an expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles, Calif., where “Jeopardy!” is filmed.

There, they were incorporated into a hectic schedule. Severson said the show taped five episodes a day.

“Alex actually changes his suits in between tapings to give the illusion that they are taping on different days,” said Demuren, who, with $49,000, holds the record for most money ever won on Jeopardy’s Kids’ Week, which he took part in at age 12.

“I was pretty nervous right before I came on. I remember what happened before and after, but being on the show I don’t really remember that well,” Demuren said.

Sometimes, this anxiety led to interesting results on the show. Demuren got a video clue that showed a wedding ceremony. “I said it was an inauguration ceremony,” he said. “People were joking about that.”

Severson faced one clue about a farm implement. “I didn’t buzz in, and then I got all this crap from everybody, saying ‘You’re supposed to be the South Dakota kid who knows his agriculture.’ ”

All the contestants, however, came away with a good impression of Trebek.

“He was pretty personable. He was pretty weird sometimes and broke out his French accent, and I think he talked like a robot once,” Severson said.

“He knows his stuff, too — it’s not just an act where he pretends to be smart. He would actually participate in judging discussions,” Walter said.

An entire show takes about 25 minutes to film, and contestants are required to keep the results secret until the show appears on television. In Severson’s case, this meant waiting from October until February.

“I have two younger siblings, so I was worried they would spill the beans,” Demuren said. “But I was proud of them for keeping quiet.”

Though the contestants seemed to think being on the show was an interesting experience, many felt it was just that and nothing more.

“I wouldn’t really call it a defining experience. I’ve done a lot of great things in my life, and I hope to do more great things,” Demuren said.

“I got an interesting story to tell,” said Kiernan, who was on Kids Jeopardy in 2000. “For two weeks I was the talk of my middle school. They announced me over the loudspeaker.”

But, “notoriety lasts a long time,” Severson said. “Even now, I expected I’d come to school, and nobody would really know. But then my roommates found out some way or other, and then everybody who knows me some how finds out about it.”

Walter even took away something more. “I learned what I could do on very little sleep. And that was reassuring going into college,” he said.

Sandra Thomas, who also appeared on Kids Jeopardy in 2000, could not be reached for comment.