Spruce Creek High grad to appear on Jeopardy

Ormond Beach Observer
Neighbors

What is, a Spruce Creek High School alumna appearing on TV?

It took 2011 SCHS graduate Jade Ryan two different audition attempts over three years to make it on Jeopardy. Ryan has watched the show since she was little, and became interested of appearing on it when she grew up. At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 5, viewers tuning in to ABC will be able to see how she performed.

Her first attempt to appear on Jeopardy was in 2015, when she auditioned in Tampa but never made it on the show. After waiting the required year and a half, she applied again. She qualified through an online test last February, and was chosen to audition in Atlanta, Georgia, in October 2018. There, she went through a formal interview and performed a test with a buzzer.

"It’s all about the buzzer," Ryan said.

Although Ryan experienced some nerves, she said the judges maintain a relaxing atmosphere to keep the show smooth and fun. The episode she appears in was filmed in December 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

Filming is fast paced as Jeopardy episodes take about 25 to 30 minutes to film. The show films five episodes a day for two days. Even though interaction on set is brief, Ryan said she had a blast. She said she was the youngest there and that the show is intense.

The small amount of qualifiers creates camaraderie among the competition as they do spend time off-set waiting. Once on-set, the contestants finally meet the host, Alex Trebek.

Ryan said Trebek is just as you expect: “sweet, sassy, and full of anecdotes.”

Ryan graduates this spring from the University of Florida with a bachelors in English and minor in Russian. Her goal is to continue in a graduate program at University of Pennsylvania to become a college professor.