Within the midst of the Seattle Mariners’ win streak again in September, sports activities anchor Aaron Levine was occurring a bit of 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 night time’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 bit of jarring to win a sport after which return to vary, and swiftly you’re pretending it’s a model new day,” Levine informed GeekWire on Friday. “No query there’s a psychological fatigue facet 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 whole day after which transfer on to the subsequent 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 gave the impression to be a few softball Seattle clues, particularly one concerning the Seahawks that he received proper. However he didn’t buzz in on a clue about billionaires and their children’ inheritance — who’s Invoice Gates?!
Earlier within the week he did get a Each 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 way in which this week, he made a enjoyable nod to a basic “Key & Peele” sketch with the way in which he etched his identify — “AA ron” — on his podium display.
Rising up in Los Angeles, Levine watched “Jeopardy!” each night time together with his household and at all times 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 varsity, 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, profitable free meals at eating places, and watching “Jeopardy!” once more. And he began making his observe playing cards in 2019.
The numerous boxes of index cards seem like one thing out of a library’s submitting system, and so they function flash playing cards for Levine to check his data on a variety of topics — literature, music, artwork, geography, faith, and so on.
Within the many years that “Jeopardy!” has been on the air, loads of Seattleites have made appearances. Good Pondering 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 a whole 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 mentioned. “It was additionally cool as a result of he was acquainted with my work being on TV right here in Seattle.”
Levine’s three wins are a good distance from what Jennings achieved (profitable 74 video games), however his objective going into the expertise was to win only one sport, and he got here away with a “lifetime of recollections.”
“To have the ability to stroll away from that stage and say, ‘Hey, I’m a ‘Jeopardy!’ champion’ and to have accomplished that 3 times and qualify for a postseason event is greater than I might have ever dreamed of,” Levine mentioned. “I hope I didn’t embarrass myself an excessive amount of on the stage.”
There’s nothing embarrassing concerning the cash he walked away with — practically $50,000 — and his plans for what he’ll do with it.
“It’s going into a school fund for my son,” Levine mentioned of his 8-year-old. “It’s so relieving to me to simply have a sum of cash that may hopefully develop for the subsequent 10 years.”
