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NC State 'Jeopardy!'
contestant
takes appearance in stride
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Roger
Winstead / Creative Services |
| NC State student Peter Ellis, foreground, and other contestants receive instructions regarding their “Jeopardy!” appearance. |
Peter Ellis handled an appearance on “Jeopardy!” the same way he handles everything else in his life. He took it in stride.
“I’m pretty calm and collected generally,” says Ellis, a senior history major from Cary. “That’s the approach I take in everything. It helps you think better under pressure.”
Ellis says he wasn’t fazed by appearing before a live audience of thousands for the taping of “Jeopardy’s 2005 College Championship” on Oct. 1-2 at the RBC Center. Not when the television lights came on, not when “Jeopardy!” theme was played and not even when the questions starting coming.
“I didn’t have butterflies,” Ellis said.
While Ellis might have been able to keep his cool on the stage, his parents in the audience could hardly contain themselves. “He might not have been worked up, but it got me worked up,” said Ellis’ father, Pete. “I thought I was going to have heart failure during the taping.”
Once he learned he’d made the cut to appear on the show in late August, the unassuming Ellis says he didn’t study any topics or potential questions he might be asked. Ellis’ father, however, said Peter has essentially been preparing a game show appearance his entire life.
“He’s a voracious reader,” Pete Ellis says. “He’s read his whole life, anything from literature to geography. Plus, you can’t cram “Jeopardy!” questions in two or three weeks. You either know it or you don’t.”
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Roger Winstead
/ Creative Services |
| “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebec is interviewed while the RBC Center is prepared for the taping of the “Jeopardy! College Championships.” The show was taped Oct. 1 and 2, and will be aired the week of Nov. 7. |
Peter Ellis says he felt his approach to the game worked. But even some of the questions he knew, he didn’t get a chance to answer. Being the first to buzz in to respond took some getting used to. “That was really tough,” Peter says. “A lot of times, it would be something that you know, and you can’t get it. It happened to everybody.”
Ellis said he also had the support of a pro-NC State crowd.
“The audience was definitely very enthusiastic toward NC State,” Peter Ellis says. “There were also lots of supporters for Duke, Carolina and N.C. Central. I wanted to perform for them, but there wasn’t anything I could really do. It’s not like sports where you can run harder because you’re more excited. You can’t really think of something if you don’t know it.”
To find out how Ellis did on the show, you’ll have to wait until the “Jeopardy! College Championships” begin airing on Nov. 7. Until then, Ellis says he’ll continue to take things in stride.
“It was exciting and a really good experience,” he says. “It wasn’t really stressful. It was like a week at summer camp.”
Posted Oct. 6, 2005
All Rights Reserved
