"The travel agent who appeared on Jeopardy twice last
week."
"Who is Nicole Cocklin?"
If you buzzed in with that answer in the form of a question,
you're correct.
Cocklin, a travel agent with Travel Leaders Fort Wayne in
Fort Wayne, Ind., appeared on the popular trivia game show last week, winning Tuesday's game before being knocked out on Wednesday.
"I just loved how positive everybody was," Cocklin
said. "The contestant coordinators were great. They were so funny and knew
how to get us pepped up and encouraged us and everything like that. But even
the other contestants were so nice and so willing to cheer for each other, even
competing against each other, which was awesome."
Cocklin, who specializes in selling cruises and France, took
Jeopardy's online test last March. The 50-question test took about 15 minutes,
she said. She didn't hear anything for quite some time and forgot she had taken
it, until she got a call in late June telling her she had a spot at an
in-person audition in Detroit.
That July 30 audition took about two-and-a-half hours,
Cocklin said. It included another test as well as a mock game.
"I really thought I'd be so nervous," she said. "I
was calmer than I expected in that situation and on the actual tape day."
At the live audition, Cocklin also got some statistics: over
80,000 had taken the online test in March, and between 2,500 and 3,500 advanced
to an in-person audition. From that pool, only about 400 would be selected to
appear on the show.
After the live audition, Cocklin said, the potential
contestants were told they'd be in Jeopardy's talent pool for a year-and-a-half;
if they didn't get called in that time period, they were advised to try again.
But less than two months after that audition, Cocklin got the call.
She flew out to Los Angeles for filming, which took place on
Halloween. According to Cocklin, the day started at 7:30 a.m. and lasted until
around 4 p.m. Five episodes are filmed, with time built in for makeup and
practice rounds.
"This was such a dream for me," she said,
describing herself as a lifelong Jeopardy fan.
Cocklin played in two of the day's middle games. There is a
pool of 12 contestants there drawn randomly to compete against the returning
champion. Cocklin walked away from the first game with $20,001 in winnings
before being knocked out in her second game.
She said using the clicker to indicate you'd like to answer
a question was a little tricky, timing-wise. Players can buzz in once host Alex
Trebek has asked a question and indicator lights come on, but not before.
"If you do buzz in just a little bit before, it locks
you out for a quarter of a second, so it can make a difference," Cocklin
said.
She wasn't nervous when she was playing the game. "I just
kind of zoned in and focused," she said.
Her favorite category came in the first game with clues
about Santa Claus.
"That was my sweet spot," Cocklin said. "I'm
a big fan of Christmas."
Contestant interactions with Trebek are limited, she said,
mainly to his brief interview after the first commercial break in which each
contestant tells a story. Before the show, contestants can provide a list of
anecdotes about themselves; they're narrowed down to three on the day of
filming, and contestants highlight their favorite.
"They do say that doesn't mean he [Trebek] won't pick
one of the other two," Cocklin said.
One of Cocklin's stories was a joke about being
sister-in-law to Prince Harry and the aunt of Meghan Markle's future child, as
both Cocklin and Markle are members of the same sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. On
the first day, she relayed a story about her childhood.
"When I was a kid, kindergarten and prior, my
grandparents would take me out to Chicago to do modeling gigs," she said. "So
I'm on toy packaging from the early to mid '90s."
Winning the first game was an "amazing"
experience, Cocklin said. And would she do it again?
"Absolutely," she said. "In a heartbeat."