Joanna Pratt a fun-loving and spirited local woman recently got to appear on the game show Jeopardy. Her episode airs Wednesday, June 10th at 7:30pm on channel 19 WOIO. “I joke that I have an immense wealth of useless knowledge,” she said with a full-hearted laugh. “I just felt the best place to showcase that would be on Jeopardy! I have always collected facts and could remember people, places and things. Ever since I was young, I have loved information and trivia.”
She is a programing associate in the reference department at Reed Memorial Library and has been there for five years. Except when her husband of 27 years, Bryan, was in the military and the family was traveling, she has lived in the Edinburg area most of her life. She has a degree in History from Kent State University and is a mother of three — Shelby, Andrew and Owen.
Early training to be on Jeopardy started with her parents, Tom and Judy Repcik, asking her questions. “We would be in the car and a song would come on and they would ask who sang it. They were always asking questions like that,” she said fondly of the memory.
In high school she was on the Quiz Bowl team and you get to be on Academic Challenge which is like a trivia show equivalent to teenage Jeopardy. It must run in the family because her 17-year-old Owen is on the Southeast High School Quiz Bowl team and was ranked within the county. “We are a very competitive family.”
“I love getting questions right,” Joanna said with emphasis. When she plays the game Trivial Pursuit everyone wants to play on her team.
Joanna started trying out to be on jeopardy when she was about 30 and it is a lengthy process. You take the online test of 50 general knowledge questions and they do not tell you your score.
I got a call back to come and audition in Cleveland in May 2018. You take another test and get put in a random pool to be on the show. When she auditioned in Cleveland, they did a mock version of Jeopardy with a clicker and interview you on camera to see how respond. You have 18 months after that to be selected and I got the phone call in early February 2020. “I immediately flipped out after I got that voicemail. ‘Would I be able to come out in March?’ they asked. I had about three weeks to make reservations and get airfare. I was allowed to bring one person with me so my co-worker, Darlene McKenzie, from the library came with me.”
Joanna excitedly explained that the lady on the phone said they really liked her and wanted to get her on the show. “You have to make an impression on them because they see so many people,” she said with pride at her accomplishment. A little fun fact they told her is 99,000 took the online test in 2018. Out of that they in-person interview about 3,500 and out of that they pick 400 people to be on the show. “So, I was one of those 400! It was amazing! It just floored me when they told me that!”
She had to be in Culver City, California (which is just outside Los Angeles) on Tuesday, March 9th to film at 7am at the Sony Television Studios the next day because they film all five shows for the whole week on Wednesday.
You can tell people you were on the show, but you cannot tell them how you did until it airs. Security was super tight; we were not allowed to have our phones or take pictures. The only photos I have are the ones sent me.
“Just walking into the studio was amazing because you’re just, like, Oh My Gosh, we are on set! It looks crazy! It went by fast when you are on the stage playing your game it is literally only 20 minutes. You forget about the cameras because you are just so focused on playing the game! I was so nervous up until that point because I wanted to do good, but I had fun and I had a good time with it.”
The host Alex Trebek was amazing and so nice, she said. He took questions from the crowd during commercial breaks and was genuinely a super nice person.
“Standing at the podium was really cool because you’re standing at the Jeopardy podium!” she stated with enthusiasm. There are five questions per category and 30-35 questions played per game consisting of Daily Doubles, some audio and video questions and various categories like music and history. “It was really kind of tricky because if you hit your buzzer too soon it locks you out of the question,” she said. “It is all about timing and the clicker! You have to time it just right and wait until Alex is done reading the question. You can’t re-buzz in unless your competitors get the answer wrong.”
Joanna’s goal was to get the answer on the Final Jeopardy question correct and to avoid last place. To find out how she did, make sure you tune in on Wednesday night!
