University alumnus Jeffrey Amoros watches himself on a segment of Jeopardy!, which he won, at a viewing party with friends and family.
What began as a love of learning and trivia at 9 years old has evolved into the realization of a lifelong goal for university alumnus Jeffrey Amoros, who made his debut on Jeopardy! Wednesday night and pulled off a come-from-behind win.
After finishing the first round in last place, Amoros surged ahead and overcame a $9,000 deficit to pull ahead of Bethesda native Adam Marshall.
Amoros led Marshall by a mere $200 going in to Final Jeopardy, and he wagered most of his $15,600 on the last question. His risk ultimately paid off as he answered correctly and won handily with more than $30,000 to his name.
“At the half, my only goal at that point was don’t finish in third,” Amoros said, whose total stood at an abysmal -$400 after the first round, trailing Marshall’s then-first-place total of $8,600.
As captain of his high school’s It’s Academic team, a member on this university’s Quiz Bowl team and a big winner on Game Show Network’s Chain Reaction, an appearance on Jeopardy! was the exclamation point on Amoros’ longtime pursuit of knowledge and unrelenting thirst for competition.
According to Chris Ray, Amaros’ former Quiz Bowl teammate, Amoros’ stunning come-from-behind victory was reminiscent of his Quiz Bowl days.
“His score was just plain embarrassing after the first round,” Ray said. “And he ended up going on a monster tear. That’s one of the things Jeff is able to do.”
“The experience itself was incredible,” Amoros said. “It was incredible meeting Alex Trebek. You’ve watched Jeopardy! or seen Jeopardy!, at least, since you were a little kid, and seen Celebrity Jeopardy!’ on [Saturday Night Live] and all that kind of stuff in popular culture, and all of a sudden you’re two feet from the guy taking a photo.”
Amoros, a 24-year-old former Diamondback editor and staff writer, took an online Jeopardy! test; a timed, 50-question evaluation on a wide array of topics, early in 2010. Just weeks later, producers invited him to an audition for the show in New York. Every year, 100,000 people take the test nationwide, from which only 4,000 are invited to auditions, Amoros noted.
The audition phase consisted of a much harder 50-question test, a mock game of Jeopardy! with two other people and a 15-minute personality test, Amoros said.
Amoros had auditioned four times: once in each his sophomore, junior and senior years, and the fourth coming last April. It was not until this fourth time that he finally moved forward to the next stage, where between only 300 and 400 people are selected, according to Amoros.
In February 2011, Amoros received an invitation to Culver City, Calif., and he left for the West Coast with his friends and family for the taping of his appearance on the show March 2.
To prepare for his Jeopardy! debut, Amoros utilized the same resources that brought him success in It’s Academic in high school and Quiz Bowl in college.
“Note cards,” Amoros said. “Going back to high school and college and stuff, I used to do note card files on everything: U.S. Presidents, Nobel Peace Prize winners, famous works of art, 18th century Russian literature; it got really specific and really obscure at times.”
Chris Ziesat, Amoros’ friend and former roommate, was one of the many people who helped him in the months leading up to his Jeopardy! debut, reading him questions and quizzing him.
“It was always really amazing how early on in the question he would actually get the answer,” Ziesat said. “I would say six words, and he would automatically know where I was going. That’s the kind of quick response you have to have with those questions.”
Amoros’ love of “trivia-based competition” began when his aunt ordered him a subscription to National Geographic in third grade.
“I read every issue cover to cover; I loved that magazine,” Amoros said. “I always watched Jeopardy! with my parents when I was a kid. They had a category on National Geographic, and as a 9-year-old, I ran the entire category. That was just when it clicked.”
Amoros took these interests to his high school’s It’s Academic team, serving as its captain.
In college, Amoros played for the university’s Quiz Bowl team, which he described as “a perennial top-10 school with Quiz Bowl every year.” In his senior year, they shut out Cornell University.
Amoros was an average college student pursuing a degree in journalism and serving as an editor for The Diamondback, but as Ziesat noted, he always kept his trivia hobby at the forefront of his pursuits.
“What helped Jeff was that this wasn’t just a chore for him, this is something he truly enjoys,” Ziesat said.
Jeopardy! was not the first time Amoros played on a nationally televised game show. In 2007, Amoros, along with his father and his father’s friend, won $7,200 on Game Show Network’s Chain Reaction, in New York.
Amoros will appear on Jeopardy! Thursday night at 7 p.m. on ABC to defend his title.
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