A: He's a lawyer, originally from Labrador, on the next episode of Jeopardy. Q: Who is John Groves?
Episode featuring contestant from Forteau airs Thursday night
Thursday's episode of Jeopardy will have a Labrador connection.
John Groves, a lawyer originally from Forteau who lives in Hamilton, is taking his love of trivia to the grandest stage.
It's something he has been dreaming of for years.
"I've always been a huge fan of the show. I've been a big fan of trivia competitions and things generally," Groves told CBC News.
"I've been watching it for years. I've been taking the tests to try to get on the show sort of sporadically for a number of years. I'm happy that it has finally happened."
To make the cut, prospective contestants must pass the show's 50-question entry test. There's no feedback for how well they've done.
"I hadn't heard anything from them the previous bunch of times that I had taken it. This time around somebody from Jeopardy did get in touch with me," Groves said.
"I was pretty excited."
From there contestants go through an audition process using Zoom.
Groves said it's basically a second test but this time there's a camera on you the whole time to make sure there's no outside interference or Googling of answers.
"Then you hope to hear from them again after that," he said.
And there's still one more step before contestants have the opportunity to hit the Jeopardy stage: another Zoom audition where they play a mock running of the game.
"Then they said 'OK. Congratulations, you're in the contestant pool. You may hear from us in the next year and a half.' So this was last June or July," said Groves.
"In February, somebody from Jeopardy called me and said they were inviting me down for a taping."
Preparation
About five weeks after the call, Groves was on a flight headed for sunny Los Angeles.
He used the time between to prepare for the toughest trivia game of his life.
"You watch the show as much as you can or also there's some online databases of Jeopardy clues. From there you get a good sense of the sorts of things they like to ask about," Groves said.
"I made a bunch of digital flashcards on my phone that helped. I just studied areas where I thought I could use a bit of improvement."
Walking onto the actual stage was an exciting moment, he said, adding things go by fairly quick. A game takes about the same time it takes to air an episode — about 30 minutes.
"There's not many stops and starts. You go through just like you're watching it. It kind of flew by," Groves said.
"It was great. All positives."
And while he can't divulge how the game actually went, the public can find out Thursday night when Groves's episode airs.
With files from Here & Now