October 3, 2018
Category: College alumni who appear on the popular TV game show, Jeopardy! Question: This MCLA alumna, an English/communications major, made her appearance on Sept. 25. Answer: Who is Courtney Llewellyn ’07.
According to Llewellyn, “Between 300 and 400 people make it to Jeopardy! every year, so it's actually eight times harder to get on the show than it is to make it into Harvard. I feel extremely lucky that everything lined up for me the way it did.”
But it almost didn’t happen. Just one week before Llewellyn was set to move from New Orleans back to upstate New York – where she’s an assistant editor for Lee Newspapers – she got word she had an audition for the show.
“I had already spent all my money on a moving truck, so I asked my friends to donate so I could fly back to New Orleans,” she said. Her friends – including those from MCLA – helped Llewellyn raise more than $500. “I nailed the audition and was asked to appear on the show just two weeks after that.”
The appearance allowed Llewellyn to check a major item off of her bucket list. “I have always been a trivia junkie, and there have been pub trivia nights where I've defeated teams of six by myself,” Llewellyn said.
Ultimately, it was the buzzer that defeated Llewellyn -- something both of her opponents had experience with from previous games. “Most of the time, all of us know the answers to all of the questions. However, you need to be able to be first ringing in – and if you ring in too early, you lock yourself out for a quarter of a second.”
All in all, “It was a breathtaking experience. Everything happened so quickly! And I definitely recommend everyone try their hand at the online test. You never know what you know!”
