Librarian featured on Jeopardy

Recently ranked by TV Guide as number two among the 50 greatest game shows of all time, Jeopardy! has been a staple of prime-time television for more than 40 years. On Thursday, May 22, 2008, Seton Hill University’s (SHU) own Judith Koveleskie, periodicals librarian for Reeves Memorial Library, will appear on the show.

Koveleskie first entered the contestant pool in January 2007 with an online test at www.jeopardy.com. By the time the show’s producers contacted her in December to tell her that she’d done well enough to move on to the next qualifying round, “I’d kind of forgotten that I’d even took the test,” she said.

By Megan Ritter,

Senior Staff Writer

Recently ranked by TV Guide as number two among the 50 greatest game shows of all time, Jeopardy! has been a staple of prime-time television for more than 40 years. On Thursday, May 22, 2008, Seton Hill University’s (SHU) own Judith Koveleskie, periodicals librarian for Reeves Memorial Library, will appear on the show.

Koveleskie first entered the contestant pool in January 2007 with an online test at www.jeopardy.com. By the time the show’s producers contacted her in December to tell her that she’d done well enough to move on to the next qualifying round, “I’d kind of forgotten that I’d even took the test,” she said.

Liz Rettger photo
Liz Rettger photo
Judith Koveleskie

The next hurdle was a 50 question written test, Koveleskie said, “to prove that I hadn’t taken the online test with ten friends standing behind me helping,” as well as a sample game played in the familiar Jeopardy! format.

Once a contestant has passed the written test and performed well in the sample game, he or she remains eligible to compete for eighteen months. While Koveleskie expected to wait months for her turn on the show, producers called her in January for the very next round of tapings, in mid-February.

“You really can’t prepare for the show, because you never know what they’ll ask,” said Koveleskie. She did memorize the U.S. presidents in order and study the details of their administrations, noting that this is one of the most frequently used categories on the show. For the same reason, she also studied the planets of our solar system. Koveleskie is also an avid fan of crossword puzzles, and she says that she’s picked up a great deal of trivia from this hobby.

Simply being a librarian also helped her, she said. “So many times my husband and I will be watching the show and I’ll know an answer. He’ll ask me, ‘How on earth did you know that?’ and I’ll say, ‘Oh, I just helped out a student who was doing a paper on that.’“

She is forbidden by contract from revealing any details of her actual performance until her particular episode has aired, including whether she won and how much money she earned through gameplay.

However, she says, “Everyone who was there to play agreed that whether we won or lost, it was an honor just to be there. Every year they audition thousands of people and they only choose 400. It’s like being chosen for the NFL.”

While Koveleskie’s husband couldn’t make the trip to California with her for the taping, she was able to bring her best friend of nearly 50 years – a friend who she’s had since junior high, who she’d been having lunch with when she got the call from Jeopardy’s producers to come to Los Angeles.

When she returned home, she and her husband promptly purchased an HDTV in celebration.

“Our TV was old and the picture quality wasn’t as good, and I didn’t want to miss Jeopardy!” she said
Pleased with her experience from start to finish, Koveleskie encourages everyone to try out for the show.

“We have some really smart kids at this school, and I think any of our students could do well.”
For more information about auditioning for Jeopardy! please visit their website. Koveleskie will appear on the show on Thursday, May 22nd.