Rice freshman competes in ‘Jeopardy! College Championship’

Rice
freshman competes in ‘Jeopardy! College Championship’

BY LINDSEY FIELDER

Rice News Staff

Under the hot
lights on a sound stage set up for a television game show,
most hearts would be pounding loudly and most hands would
feel clammy. This was not the case for Jones College freshman
Josh Perkins during the taping of the “Jeopardy! College
Championship” at Yale University.

Perkins said
he felt calm and collected throughout the taping of the
shows. “[During the games] I was focused on winning,”
Perkins said. “I didn’t really think about how
I was on TV or anything.”

Perkins was chosen
as a wild card seed for the semifinal round after placing
third in his quarterfinal game. He won his semifinal game,
positioning himself in the final championship game.

He auditioned
for the show in New Orleans by taking a 50-question test.
Perkins then participated in a mock version of the game.
After returning home to Rice, he received a call from “Jeopardy!”
saying he’d been chosen for the college tournament.
“I was very excited,” Perkins said. “I did
not expect to be chosen since they have hundreds of contestants
try out for the show.”

Perkins headed
to New Haven, Conn., in the beginning of October for two
days of taping. The first day, contestants were randomly
placed in the quarterfinal games. “The hardest part
was waiting,” he said. “It was completely random,
so no one found out until 20 minutes before each game.”

Contestants gathered
the next day to tape the semifinal and final rounds. Perkins
said everyone got along well between shows. No fights exploded
behind the scenes and contestants kept the competition on
the sound stage.

At an open viewing
in Anne and Charles Duncan Hall of the final show Nov. 21,
Rice students watched Perkins battle two other contestants
in the final round for $50,000 and a new Volvo S60R. In
the auditorium, an audience of mostly Rice students whispered
their responses to each question and cheered for Perkins
when he responded correctly.

The room erupted
in applause when Perkins received both daily doubles in
the second round. After wagering $3,000 and answering the
first daily double correctly, Perkins lost $3,600 on the
second and final daily double of the championship game.
“I felt good when I got the first [daily double] right,”
he said. “But I didn’t feel so great when I answered
the second one wrong.”

Perkins headed
into final Jeopardy! with $6,200. After missing the final
question in which contestants were asked to identify the
year of two Time Magazine covers, he finished third in the
college tournament. Perkins said the other contestants in
the final round had quicker reflexes when it came to hitting
the buzzer. “Both of the other guys were really fast
buzzing in,” he said. “I just wasn’t as fast
as they were. I knew most of the answers, though.”

Even though he
won’t be cruising around Houston in a new Volvo, Perkins
did not walk away from “Jeopardy!” empty-handed.
He is waiting for his check for around $15,000 in prize
money.

“I think
I did rather well,” Perkins said about his performance
on the show. “Looking back, of course there are things
I wish I could change, but overall I am pleased. I tried
my best the whole way through.”