Master’s candidate Brina Ratangee was a contestant on the 41st season of “Jeopardy!” alongside two other participants, and she ended the game in third place with $3,916. The episode aired on April 3. Ratangee currently serves as the Editorial Director of The Hustler.
In an interview with The Hustler, Ratangee said she grew up watching “Jeopardy!” and has enjoyed trivia from an early age. She participated in the history bee in eighth grade and academic teams in high school. During her time at Vanderbilt, she has been a part of Quiz Bowl, and she works for the company that runs the history bee she competed in during middle school.
“[Jeopardy!] was very much a big evening post dinner show in my household,” Ratangee said. “When [my family] moved to Bloomington, Indiana, for two years, I asked if we could make sure the kitchen table could see the TV so we could watch Jeopardy! if dinner ever ran late.”
To become a contestant, Ratangee said she completed the Anytime Test — a 50-question exam of general knowledge questions that serves as the first step in competing on the show — on the “Jeopardy!” website last summer. After receiving a benchmark score, she was invited to complete a similar test on Zoom. Lastly, Ratangee auditioned through a practice game on Zoom and was later called to go on the show.
“[Being on “Jeopardy!”] has always been something I’ve wanted to do. I just didn’t think I’d be able to do it this soon,” Ratangee said.
Ahead of competing, Ratangee felt most confident about the academic questions she might be asked on the show because they were most closely related to her past trivia experience. In preparation for the show, she said she mostly focused on increasing her knowledge of pop culture subjects — specifically musicals, movies and TV shows.
“I had this baseline knowledge, but I wanted to sharpen it a bit, so I competed in a quiz bowl tournament just to see if it would jog any memory,” Ratangee said. “I also went through past questions and watched prior [“Jeopardy!”] games to get a feel for the pace of it and see what topics came up.”
Ratangee noted that it was “surreal” to enter the room where the episode was filmed and interact with people and contestants who also love trivia, learning and knowledge.
“When you enter the studio, you see all the pictures of past winners and of the Alex Trebek era, and it’s just like, ‘wow, this is part of a show and a part of history.’ And even if you only get one game, which was my case, it still feels like it’s a dream come true,” Ratangee said.
Before participating in the game, Ratangee said her goal was to make it to at least one round of final “Jeopardy!” and to not have a negative amount of earnings before that question — otherwise she would be removed from the podium. She also hoped to not embarrass herself.
“Every time I buzzed in, I was like ‘I really hope either I know this, or if I’m making a guess, I hope it’s at least an educated guess that doesn’t sound stupid to my friends watching it and my family,’” Ratangee said. “But I didn’t get any feedback that was like, ‘man, how could you miss that?,’ so it’s all good.”
Ratangee recalled a memorable question she got asked on the show that was a daily double about something Americans call a period but British people call a two word term. Since Ratangee’s mom is British and she has British citizenship through her, she said she knew the answer.
“I sort of smiled a bit when I responded [to that question],” Ratangee said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough money for me to meaningfully get back in the game at that point, but it was nice to know that I got two of the daily doubles in the game and I got them both right.”
Ratangee held a watch party on campus when her episode aired. She said it was special to go on the show right before she graduates in May because she could celebrate the moment with her friends.
“Walking into the room and seeing all of my close friends there, it just reminded me of the strength of the Vandy community,” Ratangee said. “Now that I’m graduating with my master’s in May, it made me think about how I’m going to miss these people and this place.”
