QUARTERFINAL PREGAME

Seeing Maggie again was like seeing an old friend - hugs and hellos. She even remembered my wife and daughter (my son hadn't gone with us to California).

Seeing the other champs was surreal. I'd seen them all on my television set, and had been impressed by every one. Here they were in person. And I would get to play against some of them. Again let me use a golf analogy (as I did in an earlier post). Imagine watching the PGA tour on television, and really admiring the winners of the tournaments. Then, imagine going to a tournament where YOU WERE GOING TO BE PLAYING AGAINST THEM. Yikes. The difference, of course, was that SOMEHOW, I was one of them!

It was great to see Glenn and Robert and Tony again as well. They are such an incredibly professional team, and set a friendly, relaxed tone that really helps when the stakes are so high.

Speaking of friendly . . . one of the fifteen of us contestants were going to win $250,000. Fourteen of us would not. You might expect some cut-throat one-upsmanship. But there was none at all. At least none of which I was aware. What a great group of folks!

We were herded into a little bus for the short drive to the Las Vegas Convention Center. We entered through a back door and were herded into a room that was far from the excitement of the Consumer Electronics Show going on elsewhere in the complex, and, as we would find out, a couple of counties over from the actual Jeopardy! set (ok, that's a slight exaggeration).

It was only about 2:30, taping was at 7, so we had LOTS of time to fill out the forms and get to know each other a little bit. There was a spread of coldcuts and fruit but I stayed away from any kind of food after my Grilled Cheese Sandwich Experience in California. I did drink many bottles of water, which necessitated a new rule - any time there's a chance to go to the bathroom, take it. There was no bathroom attached to the Las Vegas Green Room as there is in California, so the Contestant Coordinators had to organize bathroom treks periodically. They were serious about making sure there was no collusion - there were TWO guards posted outside our door and we were reminded "Don't talk to ANYBODY" before we entered the bathrooms.

Maggie went over a greatly abbreviated presentation of the rules - "You have done this before." Most of the time was spent on TOC specific rules - how ties would be broken and such. (Ties for game winners would be broken with a sudden-death clue. Ties for wildcards would be broken by whomever had the most money going into Final Jeopardy). One interesting factoid - you can't win a game with zero or negative money. If all three players in a semifinal were in that situation, there would be an additional wildcard that would advance.

As the afternoon dragged on, we each had a turn in the makeup chair. I asked if they had remembered to pack extra anti-shine for my head, and was glad to hear that they had (I learned during my initial run that not only is the anti-shine packed on during the initial session, but it needs touching up during commercial breaks as well).

Finally, it was time to see the new set. By now you've seen it on TV. My first impression was that it was very . . . blue. My second was some disorientation - it contained all the same elements of the original set, but things were different colors and in different places. Then there was the floor - mostly clear but with these perpendicular black stripes that made judging the steps very tricky. One contestant had a pretty bad fall on one of the steps - this person recovered nicely but for a moment there one had to wonder if the alternate was going to play.

A word about the alternate. What a thankless job. Meredith was the 16th qualifier, and that meant she got to fly to Las Vegas and sit in the Green Room all day and through most of the evening, and never get to play. Then she was flown back the next day (Friday) instead of staying until Sunday like the rest of us.

Back to the set. First up were contestant interviews. We had been given a sheet of about 15 questions in the Green Room and were asked to come up with answers to them. There really wasn't time, and almost as soon as we got onto the set we began to be called up for interviews. They asked random questions from the list - I seemed to get the worst of them. I mean, asking a guy wearing a clerical collar if being in Vegas would make any difference in his wagering strategy? (You can see my interview in all its pathetic-ness at the TOC website HERE).

Then came the fun part - the practice game. We got to try out the new buzzers on the new set. My turn came and I immediately noticed that the podiums (podia?) are several inches shorter than their California cousins. They are also constructed differently, so I couldn't comfortably rest my arm as I had done before. I never really got comfortable before my time was up. I was very concerned about being able to get into a rhythm once the game started.

It was also strange practicing because just beyond the boundary of the makeshift studio, there were CES attendees milling around. It was very loud at times - we could see why they didn't tape until after the show had closed for the day.

After the practice game, it was time to return to the Green Room and . . . wait.

One cool thing that did happen was that Alex Trebek stopped by the Green Room to say "Hi." It was very unexpected - he had been kept far away from contestants during our regular games. He seemed to be excited about the TOC. It was another surreal experience, seeing him away from the set.

No one knew who was playing whom until right before time to start. I looked around the room, trying to determine who I'd like to play. My answer - none of these people!

Then the first three names were called . . . and none of them were mine.

FYI - The pairings are NOT random as they are on the regular shows. In Maggie's words, "The producers and I match you up to give what we think are going to be the best games." Or something like that.

Because it would have given an advantage to those who play later (because of the wild cards), those of us not playing could not watch. We voted on which DVD to watch ("Chicago") - all of the options had been cleared by the producers to make sure they wouldn't show up in any of the clues.

About the time John C. Reilly finished singing "Mr. Cellophane" on the movie, Glenn arrived to call the next three victims. I mean players. It had been a long wait - apparently there had been some technical problems with the set. As you probably know, I was not in that next group of three either.

I would get to finish watching "Chicago." But then, it was SHOWTIME . . .

To the next installment - TOC FORMAT