On TV, you may not have been able to see the thrill that went through Chris Kearney when Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings read the clue, “Mrs. Proudie is the domineering wife of a bishop in this Victorian’s The Last Chronicle of Barset and Barchester Towers.”
But five years ago, as he studied up for the possibility of ending up on the long-running game show, Kearney decided to search friends’ names to see if they had a famous counterpart. His freshman roommate happened to be a Trollope — though pronounced slightly differently — which brought Kearney to Victorian author Anthony Trollope. He penned a flashcard on the novelist to add to his ever-growing studying hobby.
Kearney rung in first.
“Who is Trollope?” he said, pronouncing it à la his roommate’s name.
That flashcard scored him $2,000 in the “Recurring Characters” category last week, as the Downingtown High School West teacher competed against two others on Jeopardy! Kearney ultimately placed second, behind then three-day champion James Denison (Denison’s reign ended after his fourth win).
“After the game’s over, Ken Jennings does a postgame chat session with the contestants for about five minutes, and he asked me about getting that clue, because that was a tougher clue,” Kearney recalled. “I just told him … it’s my freshman college roommate’s last name. I just wanted to make sure I knew that. So he got a chuckle out of that.”
Kearney’s appearance on Jeopardy! last Wednesday was the culmination of a lifelong dream for the social studies teacher.
Kearney, 48, grew up watching Jeopardy!, regularly tuning in when he was in middle school and all through high school. But about eight years ago, he decided he was going to try his hand at getting on the show.
To appear on Jeopardy!, first you must take an “anytime test” — a 50-question exam that you can take at any time on the show’s website. If you pass the test — rumor has it, you have to get 35 out of the 50 questions correct — then you may move on to another 50-question test that is proctored online live.
Should you pass that exam, then you could move on to a mock game and interview over Zoom. After that hurdle, you join a pool of candidates who could, at any time in the next two years, get a call inviting you to be on the show. If those two years lapse without a call, you return to the start.
Kearney completed the anytime test almost every year. He ascended to the candidate pool in 2021, but never got the call. In 2023, he tried his hand again, but never heard back. The next year, he took the entry exam again, and did hear back. In January, he was invited to the show.
“It was a dream come true, something that I had been just working on for a long time,” he said. “A feeling of relief too — that, ‘All right, finally.’ So: A lot of emotions, but ones I had to kind of keep quiet.”
Preparing for if he ever got that call became something of a hobby — or perhaps a part-time job, he said. He was constantly reviewing, studying, and learning new things. There’s a strategy to playing the game, which he became familiar with, and there’s major topics and categories that are typically featured. He built up a base knowledge in those areas, and then tried to get more and more specific. Hence, Trollope.
But it was a natural fit for someone who always liked school, and who just likes learning about things.
It helped expose Kearney to new topics, too. He didn’t know much about art and historic art movements, but he began to look at various paintings and sculptures. He hadn’t listened to much classical music, but he became familiar with major composers, listening to their famous pieces. It gave him a new perspective on things.
“I think it just kind of helps me appreciate the world around me a little better,” he said.
Kearney arrived on set in California within about two months of getting the call (he had to lie to his colleagues that he was sick; they have since forgiven him). He was surprised that he wasn’t too nervous. Instead, he felt like he had accomplished his goal — that this was exactly where he wanted to be. He bonded immediately with his fellow contestants, and found it to be a welcoming environment, where people treated it like the special event that it was.
“I was cognizant of the fact that many people want to be there and haven’t been there yet, and so I just appreciated every moment I was there,” he said.
And though he knew the experience of the game would be different from playing from the comfort of the couch, he realized how hard it was to prepare for what it feels like to be on stage.
The first part of the game he was just trying to acclimate to the pace and choosing when to ring in. There was a lot to consider — and to consider quickly. Still, it was “kind of a good stress,” he said.
Friends and family celebrated with a watch party in Downingtown. Surrounded by screens of the show, he watched the people around him root for him. He played the episode for his students the day after, pausing to tell them what was going through his mind at certain points of the game.
Of course, Kearney hadn’t been able to share the results before the show aired. As he watched people around him getting excited, he told his wife he felt bad that they were going to see him lose.
“But they didn’t care. They were just so happy to be a part of it, to celebrate and cheer me on,” he said.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
