Kalispell resident Stuart Crane, right, stands with “Jeopardy!” game show host Ken Jennings. Crane took part in the show’s Champions Wildcard tournament. (Courtesy photo) <\/span> Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n twitter
After Stuart Crane won his first game of \u201cJeopardy!\u201d in 2021 he assumed his time on the trivia game show was over. But, he is returning Monday night to take part in the Champions Wildcard Tournament, having even more fun his second time around.\u00a0
Crane said viewers can watch him attempt to answer several clues about varieties of cheese. Contestants are given general knowledge clues in the form of answers and they must reply in the form of a question.\u00a0
He couldn\u2019t reveal too much about the outcome but said the experience was different compared to his last stint on the game show \u2014 which was filmed in 2020 and aired in 2021. Back then, pandemic restrictions were at their height, so everything from the testing process to the actual game show day was changed to reduce the spread of the virus.\u00a0
Crane, a product manager at Applied Materials, is a real trivia lover. He claims being part of the Trivial Pursuit generation, playing the games often as a child, making him a natural fit to become a \u201cJeopardy!\u201d fan. He usually has the show playing in the background while he and his wife make dinner. The show runs ads encouraging people to take the online test to become future participants, so one day, Crane and his wife Rebecca decided to give it a shot.\u00a0
\u201cWe knew some stuff, so we took the online test. We did that a couple of times and I think after the second or third time, I got a call back from Jeopardy! I was scheduled to fly from Kalispell to Portland for in-person tests on March 17, 2020. Right about the time everything shut down,\u201d Crane said.\u00a0
Crane completed his tests over Zoom, followed by an interview process, and said show staff rolled the dice to fly him out for a taping of the show in late 2020. Five shows per day are taped, and Crane won the fourth show moving on to the fifth show, his second game, where he lost. But, he won a nice cash prize to take home to his family.\u00a0
\u201cBy the fifth show, I was pretty tired, pretty spent. Which makes it all the more amazing how those people go on and win five, 10 or 15, however many shows. Ken Jennings won 74 consecutive games. They are a different species,\u201d Crane said.\u00a0
He said there\u2019s not a surefire way to train for \u201cJeopardy!\u201d Past champions have used middle and high school textbooks to study, he noted, but there\u2019s no way to know what they are going to ask. To prepare, he read the book he used last time for the show, called \u201cThe Intellectual Devotional,\u201d meant to be read daily.\u00a0
\u201cI’m not sure if I retained anything, but it did make me feel like I was doing something so that I could avoid some sleepless nights as the tape day approached,\u201d Crane said.\u00a0
His special interests can be narrowed down to science and geography, but he mostly enjoys playing the game and leans on the ability to pull from what he learned in school.
\u201cI don’t think I have any recondite knowledge, I just have the ability to retain the things that I learned in middle school or high school. My strategy for \u2018Jeopardy!,\u2019 at least the first time, was if I know one thing about a thing, they’re probably asking me about that thing. So go ahead and try that,\u201d Crane said.\u00a0
Because he had to keep his distance from other contestants during his first time on the show, Crane noted how nice it was to have camaraderie with other contestants this time around. And took note of how they were preparing to take the stage.\u00a0
\u201cThere was one guy who was reading a book of lists, like top 10 whatevers just pages and pages. As we’re laughing and joking in the room he’s studying. And then another woman had a stack of fine art flashcards that she was going through looking at paintings and stuff. So people had all sorts of different strategies,\u201d Crane said.\u00a0
He is adamant that anyone interested can take the test and do well on the show.\u00a0
\u201cAlmost everybody who was in the green room said the same sort of thing like, \u2018Well, I didn’t know that I could do it. But I took the test and they said I could do it, so I went and did it,\u201d Crane said.\u00a0
He said in general, the returning contestants were not as nervous returning, and though everyone deals with stress differently, he just tried to have fun with it.\u00a0
\u201cI just really had a good time. I buzzed in way too often, but I just enjoyed the experience,\u201d Crane said.\u00a0
Tune in to see how Crane fares in Monday night\u2019s episode of \u201cJeopardy!\u201d which airs at 6 p.m. Mountain time on KPAX.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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