Question: ‘Where did the Jan. 24 “Jeopardy” champion go to school?’
“I wanted the chance to represent Linfield in a college tournament where most competitors are from big universities.” — Heather Nelson ’09
By Alexandra Feller ’21
After a full day of teaching math at Lake Oswego Junior High School, Heather Nelson ’09, boarded an evening flight to Los Angeles. The next day, a “Jeopardy” shuttle escorted her from her hotel to the Sony Pictures lot.
“Jeopardy” was a fond childhood memory for Nelson, but she never considered competing on the show until she watched the college-themed episodes while majoring in psychology at Linfield.
“I wanted the chance to represent Linfield in a college tournament where most competitors are from big universities,” she recalled. Nelson took the show’s contestant qualifying test online, but she wasn’t selected as an undergrad.
She kept trying, and a dozen years later she finally received a call to audition. “I just did my best on the test and was myself through the game play and interview,” she said. “I am a total extrovert, so interacting with other contestants and the contestant coordinators was easy for me.”
After a successful audition, Nelson had a month to prepare for competition. “I started trying to brush up on some of my weaker areas, like Shakespeare and poetry, by checking out library books that were compendiums on a subject. I read a 300-plus page book on all of Shakespeare’s plays in less than 24 hours — only to have zero Shakespeare questions actually happen!”
To kick her studying into high gear, she and her husband, Michael Nelson ’10, analyzed old episodes to see how contestants bet on different types of Final Jeopardy questions. “I tend to be conservative with betting, so I learned how to assess a possible position and make a plan based on the category,” she said.
The show films five episodes a day, three before lunch and two after lunch. Nelson waited for hours to be called. Her episode was the last of the day. After all her preparation, the competition lasted about 30 minutes.
“Once it was time for my game to start, all my nerves came rushing in,” she said. “I was shaking so badly that I had to hold my buzzer with two hands. I was worried I’d accidentally ring it just with my shaking.”
Even so, Nelson’s studying paid off. Thanks to a smart bet in Final Jeopardy (the category was “Bestselling Authors”), she officially became a “Jeopardy” champion.
She won $7,799 and prepared to enter the next show as a returning champion. She was scheduled to film the following Tuesday. In between, Nelson returned to work and spent time with friends and family. All she was allowed to say was, “I have to go back to L.A. next week.”
Only her close family, who had watched the taping live, knew that Nelson had won. Two and a half months later, when her episode aired Jan. 24, she hosted nearly 70 people at her house for a watch party, including many Linfield friends. “I received so much support from all over,” she said, with people sending hundreds of texts, emails and social media messages.
Nelson didn’t win her second round of competition, but she’s proud of her performance on both shows. “It’s a really cool place to be,” she said. “Fewer than 33% of the people who even get the honor of being on the show get to be a champion.
