Baylor Students To Host JEOPARDY! Viewing Party Nov. 14
Baylor University's Student Involvement Board, Student Union and the Business Excellence and Scholarship Team (BEST) in the Hankamer School of Business will hold a JEOPARDY! viewing party beginning at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, in the television area of the Bill Daniel Student Center.
Baylor senior Rob Schickler, a business and journalism double major and member of BEST, will be competing in the JEOPARDY! College Championship, recorded in September at the University of Washington's Meany Hall in Seattle. Schickler's first round appearance, versus students from Washington and Vanderbilt University, will be televised at 4:30 p.m. locally on KCEN-TV Channel 6.
Schickler, among more than 3,000 undergraduates who auditioned for JEOPARDY! this summer in 10 U.S. cities, tried out during the show's Austin stop. A JEOPARDY! contest coordinator called him in August, informing him of his selection as one of 15 contestants in the elite tournament. Other universities represented were Rice, Washington, Illinois-Urbana Champaign, Vanderbilt, Harvard, Dartmouth, Delaware, Loyola-Chicago, Texas, Ursinus College, Wisconsin, Luther College and George Washington University.
All players will appear during the first week in a series of five shows. The winners of each of those shows, plus the four highest money earners go on to the semi-finals. The nine semi-finalists compete in three shows the following week, and the winners of those shows proceed to a two-game final match.
The champion is guaranteed a $50,000 cash prize, a Volvo S60 and a place in the prestigious JEOPARDY! Tournament of Champions. The second place finisher receives $15,000 and third place takes home $10,000, or the best of their two-day final score. Volvo also is awarding scholarships of $25,000, $15,000 and $10,000 to the top three finishers. Semi-finalists
receive $5,000, and players eliminated in the first week receive $2,500.
JEOPARDY! was created in 1964 by Merv Griffin, who also composed the show's "think" theme music. The show debuted in syndication in 1984 and has ranked as the top quiz program in the Nielsen ratings for 769 weeks and as the second highest rated show in syndication for 55 consecutive sweeps periods.