Saco woman appears on Jeopardy

SACO — When the pandemic hit, Karla Fossett started watching past episodes of Jeopardy on Netflix with her best friend. Her friend was so impressed with the quick rate at which Fossett answered the questions, she urged her to try out for the show.

Fossett appeared in two episodes that aired Friday, July 22 and Monday, July 25.

“I’m 38, and I appeared on season 38,” she said. “And the Friday episode was Alex Trebek’s birthday, and he would have been 82.”

The first step in being considered for the game show was to take an online test.

“It’s a huge range of topics, and we found out it’s random,” she said. “My friend who encouraged me to take it, she took it at the same time, and we had totally different questions.”

There were 50 questions, and only eight seconds to answer each question, and Fossett made the cut.

“Some of it is luck. I happened to get questions that were about geography and history- things that were in my wheelhouse,” she said.

The next step was the audition – a two-step process. The first round of the audition is a 50-question test over Zoom. After passing that, Fossett then moved to the final audition, a game over Zoom with other players, in June 2021.

Ten months later, in April of this year, she received a call that she was chosen to be a contestant on the show. It was a huge surprise, though she wasn’t able to register the shock right away because she was sick with Covid when she got the call.

Once Fossett knew she was going to be on the show, she began studying.

“I picked subjects that I knew nothing about -things like opera or art movements- and took notes on them in a big binder,” she said.

She was flown out to Culver City, just south of Los Angeles to film the show. A week’s worth of episodes were shot in one day and all contestants spent the day together – no phones or outside influences.

“The integrity of the show is incredibly important,” said Fossett.

After hair and make-up was done, there were two rehearsal rounds with the stage manager, then two episodes filmed before lunch, and three after.

There was no studio audience this year, but the atmosphere was lively and fun while the game show was being filmed.

“The Final Jeopardy music actually plays out loud on stage, and they turn the stage lights red,” she said.

Filming an episode generally takes longer than the 22 minutes of airtime on television. During the commercial breaks, any questions on contestant responses are reviewed, and this could mean a half hour of waiting around for the game to proceed.

Contestants are asked not to wear light-colored clothing or clothes with busy patterns, said Fossett. They are required to bring several outfits so there is a balance of colors on the set. On one of the days of shooting Fossett planned to wear a pink shirt but had to change because host Ken Jennings was wearing a pink shirt.

Fossett said a blazer of hers wound up on the wrong person’s clothing rack. The contestant thought it was a back-up article of clothing from the wardrobe department and ended up wearing it on an episode that aired a few days after Fossett’s second episode.

Fossett won a total of $17,600, though the experience wasn’t all about the money. She said one of the highlights of being on Jeopardy was the friends she met. Because she appeared on episodes from two different weeks, she had the opportunity to meet two groups of contestants. As she was sworn to secrecy until two weeks before the show was filmed, it was nice to have this group of friends to chat with online to talk about the show.

Another highlight was meeting game show contestant turned host Ken Jennings.

“Ken is great. He is very nice. He comes out at the beginning of the game to chat with the contestants,” she said.

Fossett said Jennings told everyone to enjoy their time in the studio because they already did the hardest part which was qualifying for the show. She said he had a good sense of humor and a good relationship with the crew, some of which knew him during his 75 episode streak as a contestant.

“He just really seems to enjoy being there,” she said.

Fossett is a content administrator at an accounting and consulting firm. She is a graduate of the Stone Coast MFA program and is currently working on a novel.

Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at [email protected].