Here's how Indianapolis doctor Alicia Schaffer did on 'Jeopardy!'
Indianapolis physician Alicia Schaffer was nervous, she said, right before cameras zoomed in to capture her introduction as a contestant on TV's Jeopardy!. If that was the case, Schaffer didn't show any fear Thursday night during her debut appearance on the popular quiz show.
The doctor came ready to play, buzzing in a total of 19 times. Twice, she captured the lead from returning champion Lucas Partridge, a school counselor in Las Vegas, and pulled far ahead of Zach Razavi, a palliative care physician from Saint Paul.
By the final round, however, Partridge had regained the top spot, but not by much.
'It’s mostly a game about the buzzer': What you need to know about Indianapolis doctor on Jeopardy!
Schaffer was down only $2,600 and looked confident when show host Ken Jennings asked the last question of the night: "Formed in 1831 to help with the conquest of Algeria, its ranks have included Germans, Turks, and Chinese."
Schaffer leaned over the podium to write her answer, a moment on Jeopardy! she'd been hoping for since watching the show as a kid.
"This was really a dream chance to tick a big bucket list item off for me," Schaffer said in a message to IndyStar, adding that her father had talked about taking the Jeopardy!'s difficult audition test himself.
Schaffer, 41, arrived in Indiana for her residency program, attending Indiana University School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. She currently works as an OB/Gyn hospitalist at Community North.
"It ended up becoming this huge challenge in my mind," Schaffer said. "Like climbing the Everest of trivia."
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How did Alicia Schaffer finish? (Spoiler alert)
Schaffer fought valiantly but won't advance to Friday's game.
After wagering $6,999, she answered the final question correctly: "Who is the French Foreign Legion?" to end the night with $17,999 but lost to Partridge. The Las Vegas school counselor also got the question right to win Thursday's game with $22,100.
Take the Jeopardy! audition test
Quick, can you answer these Jeopardy! questions? (answers are below)
According to the book of Psalms, these objects “have ears, but they hear not.”
The Spanish title of this Vicente Blasco Ibanez novel about bullfighting is “Sangre y Arena.”
After “The Civil War” aired on PBS, this Memphis Civil War historian became a celebrity.
In a separate interview with IndyStar, Schaffer’s said her route to Jeopardy! began more than two years ago when she first auditioned by answering questions online and then virtually. A year ago, she learned she had made it to the pool of potential contestants.
Potential contestants are invited to audition by taking the show's online test, which can be found here: jeopardy.com/be-on-j/anytime-test.
Adult contestants must be age 18 or older. Producers recommend you have at least 15 minutes to complete the test.
(And those answers in the form of a Jeopardy! response above were: "What are Idols?" "What is 'Blood and Sand'?" "Who is Shelby Foote?")
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis doctor Alicia Schaffer appears on 'Jeopardy!'
