It was the fulfillment of a long-held dream to appear on the show, but the length of her run surprised even her. Now she is hoping her success will earn an invitation back for a Tournament of Champions appearance.
“I never really expected to win. I hoped I would do okay and that I wouldn’t embarrass myself too much,” she said. “So every time I won, I was surprised.”
McNitt said her success on the show provides a lot of good memories, but she also enjoyed the off-camera camaraderie among contestants.
“We were all going out to compete against each other, but we were also people who had worked for a common goal and who had a lot to share with each other. I got to spend time with the other contestants in the green room and at lunch and I really enjoyed meeting them,” she said. “It was a lot of fun to spend time with the other contestants and find out about their road to Jeopardy!.”
Her fourth night on the show, last Friday, came close to being her final appearance. She trailed by a wide margin behind Oregon Public Radio host Geoff Norcross heading into the Final Jeopardy! Round, but he gambled a big part of his winnings on a wrong answer. Actually, all three contestants had wrong answers, but McNitt had bet the least and came out the winner.
“I was especially surprised on Friday because I had seen Geoff in action in the practice games and I knew he was going to be a tough opponent. In Final Jeopardy!, I was just shooting for second place and was shocked when I won,” she said. “I hope that five wins will be enough to get me to the Tournament of Champions so that I can go back out, because I had a lot of fun. All of the crew and staff at Jeopardy! were very enthusiastic and it was a great honor to be there.”
The Tournament of Champions is held sporadically, the last in February 2013, and the top winners since the last TOC are invited. McNitt said that she does not know if she will be invited back for it, but added that usually everyone who wins five or more times is invited.
Her appearance was celebrated by Oxford and Miami friends who gathered Jan. 14 for her initial night on the show.
“My former coworkers organized a viewing party on campus on the 14th to watch me play, and had a whole group of people there who I had met during my time in Oxford,” she said. “They sent me videos after the game of everyone waving and cheering.”
She worked at Miami from 2005 to last August as Study Abroad Advisor in the Office of International Education, now Global Initiatives. She lived in Oxford the eight years she worked at Miami. She was on the Friends of the Oxford Lane Library board until leaving for the University of Iowa, and also served for a while on MU’s Unclassified Personnel Advisory Committee (UPAC).
After trying to get on the show while a freshman at Albion College, McNitt saw a friend get his chance to appear and credits his appearance on the college tournament with games of Trivial Pursuit they had played together. She took the on-line test in 2009 and earned the right to audition which put her in the candidate pool for 18 months.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get picked that year, but I wasn’t too disappointed, because every audition meant a little more practice with the signaling device and a little more time spent hanging out with my fellow Jeopardy! nerds,” she said.
She took the on-line test in 2011 and 2012 with no results, but made it in 2013, getting invited to a Detroit audition on July 13. She told them she had plans for that day which could not be changed. It was her wedding day.
“Fortunately, Jeopardy! was flexible and offered me the option of auditioning either the day before or the day after the wedding. I decided I would be more relaxed afterwards, so I picked the 14th,” she said. “The morning after our wedding, Jason and I had breakfast with family then headed off to Detroit, where one of the stories I used in my audition was that I had gotten married less than 24 hours before. “
Jeopardy! gave McNitt an opportunity to pay tribute to her mother, who died a short time before her taping.
“I’m also really glad that in Wednesday’s game I had an opportunity to encourage viewers to donate blood and join the bone marrow registry. My mother passed away from Leukemia two weeks before my first taping day and I was really glad to be able to talk about her and her legacy,” she said. “I was worried about getting choked up on stage, but it was an important message to share.”
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