Rockford Woman Takes the Stage on New Season of ‘Jeopardy!’

Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a contestant on Jeopardy!? Well, one Rockford woman had the chance of lifetime and will be featured on the show's new season that premieres next week!

Favorite Game Shows

When I get a spare minute, I like watching game and competition reality shows on television, but there are few I know I could never be a contestant on.

I don't have the endurance to do something like The Amazing Race.

I would never survive camping and eating bugs on Survivor.

I would hate getting eliminated and humiliated on The Bachelor or Dancing With The Stars.

I may have a chance on a trivia-style game show, but one like Jeopardy!? I'd probably crack under the pressure, thankfully, another Rockford woman did not.

Rockford Woman Competes On New Season of 'Jeopardy!'

By day Stacy Shelly is an attorney and Partner at Langhenry, Gillen, Lundquist & Johnson, LLC in Rockford, but in her free time she's a Jeopardy! champion. (Or so I hope!)

Season 42 of Jeopardy! premieres on CBS Monday, September 8, and a few months ago Stacy flew to California to tape an episode for the new season.

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Stacy about her experience on Jeopardy!, and of course the first question I asked was: "what did you have to do to get on the show?"  Here's what she said:

I started like everyone does, by taking the Anytime Test. I’ve actually taken that test many times over past 20 years and never made it past that point. This time, I honestly thought that I had bombed the test and was annoyed with myself. But then, maybe six weeks later, I got an email from Jeopardy! congratulating me, with the opportunity to take the next round test. I felt great about that test and sure enough, I made the next round of the audition process after which I was told that I had made the contestant pool. However, there’s still no guarantee that you will get to be on the show. Six months later,  I was driving home from work when a call popped up on my phone from Culver City, California. I thought either this was going to be the most exciting phone call of my life, or the most disappointing spam. It ended up being the best call of my life, and a few months later, I was in California, appearing on Jeopardy!

If you've watched Jeopardy! before you know that succeeding on the show requires an extensive knowledge for a vast variety of subjects. How does one prepare for something like that?

Well, for Stacy, it meant studying certain areas, like science and geography, and playing a lot of trivia games with friends to get her game on point.

As for the experience of being on "America's favorite quiz show", here is what Stacy had to say:

being on the show was a thrill – walking out from the green room and seeing the stage for the first time was a real “whoa…how is this my real life??” moment. But my favorite part of the experience has truly been the other contestants. I’ve heard that there is a lot of camaraderie and collegiality amongst Jeopardy! contestants and it is true. Everyone I competed with is so smart and nice and generally wonderful. I feel very lucky to know them all.

How cool is that?!?

Now the only question left is: how did Stacy do on Jeopardy!?

We'll have to watch her episode on Tuesday, September 9 to find out.

Here's the trailer for season 42 of Jeopardy!. Do you spot anyone familiar in it?