A 16-year old Tyler Combs runs into the living room, desperate to get to the TV before Alex Trebek announces the first clue.
He tells his parents to make sure the TV's adjusted to the right channel.
He situates himself on his family’s brown sectional with a pen and paper, ready to record his score for this episode. He has the best seat in the house.
The “Jeopardy!” theme song echoes from the TV.
Tyler scribbles down the categories and prepares himself for the next 30 minutes.
***
IU senior Tyler Combs participated in the 2020 “Jeopardy!” College Championship from February 3-4, 2020.
The selection process for this competition began in October 2019, when his mom, Vicki Combs, sent him the link to the online application and test, but this wasn’t Tyler’s first time trying out for “Jeopardy!”
He's wanted to be on the show ever since he started watching in middle school.
“You’re gonna be on there,” his mom used to tell him as he sat in front of the TV.
In high school he competed in Quiz Bowl, where he learned how to operate a buzzer. His specialties were history and geography. One year, he applied for the "Jeopardy!" teen tournament, but didn't make it to an interview.
He also applied his freshman year at IU for the 2016 "Jeopardy!" College Championship. Again, he didn't make it to an interview.
But this time, after he finished his application he was called back for an in-person interview on November 2 in St. Louis, Missouri. There, Tyler got to use a buzzer during practice round of the competition.
“It was like seeing an old friend,” he said.
Then, on January 21 he got a call saying he was selected to be one of 15contestants out of about 18,000 applicants, and he flew out to California less than two weeks later.
***
Tyler didn’t expect to watch himself on TV from his parent’s couch.
He had wanted to go out the nights after his episodes aired and be the “Jeopardy guy.” However, due to the multiple stay-at-home orders issued because of COVID-19, Tyler and many other IU students had already returned to their parents' homes.
Instead of viewing the show with friends, his immediate family Zoom called other relatives as the episodes aired. Instead of going out to the bars after his episodes, he settled for live tweeting during them.
However, there were more people tuning in to the show.
Not only were there more people stuck inside, but the college students who only had streaming services now had access to cable. And there were no sports to watch.
So, when Tyler started to advance in the tournament, progressing from the first round to the semifinals to the finals, people really began to notice.
Tyler said his friends were sending him messages like, “Thank God you’re giving me something to watch.”
***
There are lots of things people who watch the show on TV don’t see or recognize, Tyler said.
All of the episodes are filmed within a short period of time, just two days for a little over a week of episodes. He had to keep switching his two IU sweatshirts between each filming so they could keep up the illusion that the episodes took place on different days.
During commercial breaks, contestant coordinators talk to the participants to help calm them down, tell them to select categories or say answers quicker and give them high-fives.
There are no cell phones backstage, no studying in between episodes and no eye contact with the parents during the episodes.
Hobie Combs, Tyler’s dad, said not being able to talk to Tyler or make eye contact with him drove him crazy, especially when Tyler was behind going into Final Jeopardy! for the semifinal round.
He was in third place going into Double Jeopardy!
Tyler grew slightly anxious as started to incorrectly time when he should press the buzzer. Hobie’s heart pounded.
Then Tyler got into a groove, correctly answering both Daily Doubles.
He grew more confident. Hobie was on the edge of his seat.
Tyler had $16,400 going into Final Jeopardy! He wagered all of his money. The clue was, “This word for a concept in Eastern religion comes from Latin roots for ‘made in flesh’ and ‘again.'"
He was the last contestant to reveal their answer.
Hobie felt his blood pressure rise.
Tyler guessed, “What is reincarnation?” He got it right.
Hobie did a little fist pump. He thinks he might have accidentally bruised his wife’s elbow.
Tyler advanced to the finals.
***
Tyler knew he was being outpaced on the buzzer and outbet during the final round of the competition.
During the first match of the two-match finals, finalist NibirSarma had taken off on the buzzer leaving both Tyler and the other finalist Xiaoke Ying trailing behind him by about $22,000.
Tyler had felt extremely confident going into the finals, possibly too confident. While that deficit really hurt, Tyler said it was the reality check he needed to get focused for the second match.
The second match, the same thing happened. At one point, Nibir got a Daily Double, bet all his money and doubled his score.
After that, Tyler said he knew he wasn’t going to win. But he also knew there was a $25,000 difference between second and third place.
So he changed his mindset, felt more comfortable on stage and ended the match with $19,800. He ended in second place and won $50,000.
***
Overall, Tyler’s experience on Jeopardy meant fulfilling a childhood dream, making lots of friends and getting a slight ego boost without inflating it too much.
“I got the nice, ‘Good job, kiddo!’ and then it got popped just a teensy bit,” Tyler said.
He even experienced this when watching the episodes from home. After he ended in second place, one of his friends sent him the link to the “I Lost on Jeopardy” parody song by “Weird Al” Yankovic.
“Great job! 50 grand, baby!” his friend texted him. “But I gotta do it to you." The next text was the link to the video.
Tyler remembers watching the video when he was younger and laughing. Now, he said he kind of relates to it.
“I remember watching it at the time and thinking, ‘Awe, this is funny,’” Tyler said. “And now it’s like, ‘Oh, this is real.’”
Now, the tournament is over. There are no more phone calls after each episode ends. No more keeping secrets on the results. No more live tweeting.
But Tyler still watches "Jeopardy!" almost every weeknight with his family in the same living room.
It’s good family time, Hobie said. At this point, it’s almost like a family tradition.
The only difference is that the old couch has been replaced, and Tyler no longer keeps track of his score.
Last Wednesday Tyler tweeted, “Jeopardy hits different when you’re watching for the first time after watching yourself on it.”
