During my time on 'Jeopardy!' I met two of the best: no-nonsense contestant coordinator Suzanne Thurber and the effervescent Maggie Speak, who succeeded Thurber and is now one of the show's producers. Of course, behind the scenes, women have always been making names for themselves on game shows. (I do remember talking with Alex Trebek after my second show about baseball I remember being disappointed that he liked high scoring games.)īut from Trebek's soothing Canadian purr to the commanding elegance of stage director John Orlando's 'Quiet, please' before tape rolled, I do remember, distinctly, that the dominant voices around me were male. I don't remember everything that happened during those shows, though it's not so much that everything goes by in a blur as much as that you enter a heightened state of awareness that focuses you entirely on the clues, the buzzer and why the hell the guy at podium three always gets in a microsecond before you do.
I have a minor history in television game shows, so I have some skin in this game: I appeared nine times on 'Jeopardy!,' including five times as a returning champion (back before they allowed you to stay until someone beat you, a move that seemed brilliant when it loosed the ratings bonanzas of Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer on the game) and three in tournaments. Opinion James Holzhauer didn't break 'Jeopardy!' He mastered it.
