Within the midst of the Seattle Mariners’ win streak again in September, sports activities anchor Aaron Levine was occurring a little bit run of his personal, as a contestant on “Jeopardy!”
The episodes aired this week, and Levine, sports activities director for FOX 13 in Seattle, managed three wins in a row earlier than bowing out in Thursday evening’s episode of the favored sport present.
Levine taped all 4 of his video games over about 4 hours, with 15-minute breaks between them to change outfits within the “champion’s altering room.”
“It’s a little bit jarring to win a sport after which return to alter, and unexpectedly you’re pretending it’s a model new day,” Levine advised GeekWire on Friday. “No query there’s a psychological fatigue side to it. I’ve a brand-new respect for anyone who can win a number of video games in a day, not to mention survive a complete day after which transfer on to the following tape day.”
A self-professed trivia geek, Levine majored in historical past at Stanford College and considers that class his strongest. It’s why he’s kicking himself for not getting Thursday’s Remaining Jeopardy query appropriate (about Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello) within the class “historic properties.”
Elsewhere within the sport Thursday, Levine discovered what seemed to be a few softball Seattle clues, particularly one in regards to the Seahawks that he received proper. However he did not buzz in on a clue about billionaires and their youngsters’ inheritance — who’s Invoice Gates?!
Earlier within the week he did get a Day by day Double query appropriate about Stanford, and he was particularly happy to have the ability to shout out his alma mater with a “Go Cardinal” fist pump.
And alongside the best way this week, he made a enjoyable nod to a basic “Key & Peele” sketch with the best way he etched his title — “AA ron” — on his podium display screen.
Rising up in Los Angeles, Levine watched “Jeopardy!” each evening along with his household and all the time needed to be on the present’s teen event. He scored an look on “The Worth is Proper” at age 18, however when he went off to school, trivia wasn’t part of his life.
Levine landed on TV once more in 2004 when he was the nationwide runner-up on the ESPN actuality present “Dream Job,” which was a seek for a brand new “SportsCenter” anchor.
It wasn’t till he was residing in Gig Harbor, Wash., that he began going to trivia nights, successful free meals at eating places, and watching “Jeopardy!” once more. And he began making his word playing cards in 2019.
The quite a few containers of index playing cards seem like one thing out of a library’s submitting system, they usually function flash playing cards for Levine to check his information on a spread of topics — literature, music, artwork, geography, faith, and so forth.
Within the a long time that “Jeopardy!” has been on the air, loads of Seattleites have made appearances. Good Considering Video games CEO David Erb is a notable previous champion, and Amazon worker Stephanie Hubley received a shout-out from Jeff Bezos for her look again in 2016.
Levine loved getting to fulfill host Ken Jennings, who lives in Seattle, throughout restricted time by which Jennings interacts with contestants throughout industrial breaks.
“You don’t get quite a lot of time to speak to him, however I did really feel a type of familiarity and kinship with him, realizing that not solely is he from Seattle, however he’s an enormous Seattle sports activities fan, and that he’s an enormous Mariners fan,” Levine stated. “It was additionally cool as a result of he was conversant in my work being on TV right here in Seattle.”
Levine’s three wins are a good distance from what Jennings achieved (successful 74 video games), however his purpose going into the expertise was to win only one sport, and he got here away with a “lifetime of reminiscences.”
“To have the ability to stroll away from that stage and say, ‘Hey, I’m a ‘Jeopardy!’ champion’ and to have finished that 3 times and qualify for a postseason event is greater than I might have ever dreamed of,” Levine stated. “I hope I didn’t embarrass myself an excessive amount of on the stage.”
There’s nothing embarrassing in regards to the cash he walked away with — practically $50,000 — and his plans for what he’ll do with it.
“It’s going into a university fund for my son,” Levine stated of his 8-year-old. “It’s so relieving to me to simply have a sum of cash that may hopefully develop for the following 10 years.”
