God and Jeopardy! in the time of COVID

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, left, was the guest host during Kari Stadem’s appearance on Jeopardy! Contributed Kari Stadem

BY KARI STADEM

This spring, a once-in-a-lifetime experience — competing on Jeopardy! — reminded me once again that my life is not under my control.

Two years ago, I took the Jeopardy online test for the first time (along with about 200,000 other people) after talking about it for years. I was invited to Milwaukee for an audition, which happens to about 4,000 people per year, of whom about 400 get on the show, and then told I could be called any time in the next 18 months.

After a year, I told the Lord, “I’m not getting any better at this as I age, and every year is another year of pop culture that I know nothing about. So please let me get on the show this time, because I’m not going to try out again.”

I got the call in January — in the middle of COVID. Perhaps some potential contestants said “No” — I said “Yes!” (I’d had coronavirus by then.) Los Angeles was in the middle of a surge at that time, and I would be allowed to fly into LAX with a negative test 72 hours beforehand, only because I was considered an “essential worker” on a TV show.

My husband Pete and I ended up flying to Phoenix to visit my parents instead, and driving to California, staying with a cousin in Anaheim. I’m so grateful Pete drove through the six-to-eight lanes of traffic with construction.

We were very puzzled to see people fully masked outside on the beach with no one within 100 yards, or jogging alone in a park. We also couldn’t find a restroom to use, at gas stations or restaurants.

We found out later that LA had an outdoor mask mandate, a ban on indoor dining including restrooms, and a rule that gas stations could only have a restroom open if they had two employees on duty.

I realized my lack of control of everything.

My mandatory COVID test might be positive; I might be only an alternate; COVID could shut the whole taping down. I reminded myself, “God is a good Father. If He can say yes to my request to be on Jeopardy, He will.” I really did want to win at least one game, but again, “Thy will be done” was my prayer.

“Just please let me not look like an idiot,” I asked.

None of us ever came within six feet of another human that entire day. Staff members drilled us: “stand here,” “walk there,” “eat the snacks you brought, while staying in the circle painted on the floor which is six feet from the next circle.” They did feed us a delicious pre-packaged lunch as we sat on either end of 8-foot white tables.

We had a routine to get up to the podiums: march six feet apart, get in line with the podiums, pivot and walk up to the podium, take the hand sanitizer out of the little black bags they gave us, use it, take our N-95 masks off, put everything away and place the bags down beside us, pick up the buzzers.

Kari Stadem, shown here during her time competing on Jeopardy!, got the call that she’d been selected in January 2021, right in the middle of COVID. Despite all the challenges going on a game show in the middle of a pandemic presented, Stadem enjoyed the experience.

Contributed Kari Stadem

There were mic tests and buzzer tests and lighting tests and then guest host (Green Bay Packers quarterback) Aaron Rodgers came out to greet us.

I told him, “I’m a lifelong Vikings fan,” and he replied, “Well, nobody’s perfect” and chuckled. We wrote our names on the glass and got ready. I wasn’t very nervous, just excited and wondering how it would all go.

The categories, the other contestants and the buzzer are the main factors in whether someone wins a Jeopardy! game. “Bible Based Literature” was right up my alley in the first round, and I was tied for the lead at the end of it.

In Double Jeopardy, the second round, I just couldn’t buzz in at the right time. Some people don’t realize that the host has to finish reading the clue in its entirety before our buzzers go live. If you push your buzzer early, you’re locked out for 5 seconds (a lifetime).

Like most contestants, I knew most of the answers, but lost the game on the buzzer to my two younger rivals. I answered Final Jeopardy incorrectly and ended up in second place. I was disappointed but upbeat; I hadn’t looked like an idiot! Thank you, Lord!

Back at home, my local family and friends and I were unable to watch the show at the usual time on April 14 because it was pre-empted for the Brooklyn Center mayor’s press conference after their police shooting. Most were able to record it at 1 a.m. or watch it on YouTube, but it was frustrating at the time. Once more I had to say, “My times are in Your hands, O Lord.” (Psalm 31:15)

And that’s what I learned about God from competing on Jeopardy! during the time of COVID.