College sophomore Rishabh Wuppalapati won Jeopardy! on Oct. 15 and Oct. 16 (Photo from Rishabh Wuppalapati).
College sophomore Rishabh Wuppalapati won "Jeopardy!" two consecutive nights and will be continuing his run for a third day as the returning champion.
The trivia game show "Jeopardy!" features three contestants who compete to solve clues quickly and formulate their responses in terms of a question. Wuppalapati's appearances aired on Oct. 15 and 16, with another set for Oct. 17.
On Tuesday night, Wuppalapati — a former staffer for The Daily Pennsylvanian — faced off against fellow contestants Eamonn Campbell, a Vermont lawyer, and Zoe Grobman, a Philadelphia therapist. Wuppalapati told the DP that he was "extremely stressed" when the game first began.
“I knew every single answer, but I was getting frustrated because I was losing every single buzzer race, except for one," Wuppalapati said. "So, right before the break, that was a really great opportunity for me to kind of calm my nerves and get back into it."
Despite a slow start, Wuppalapati rallied during the high-stakes Double Jeopardy round and ultimately won.
Wuppalapati appeared on "Jeopardy!" the following day as Returning Champion, competing against St. Louis attorney Jay Eversman and Brown professor Rachel Cassidy. The competition remained intense — throughout the course of the game, the leading contestant changed five different times.
Despite the competition, Wuppalapati won another round and entered Thursday’s appearance with a two-day win streak and $42,402 in total earnings.
Wuppalapati said that he auditioned for the game show “on a whim." He began by taking the online "Jeopardy! Anytime Test," which is open for anyone to take it at any time. After that initial success, Wuppalapati took a Zoom-proctored test, participated in mock auditions, and did an interview before he was called back almost six months later for filming in September.
Despite only casually auditioning, Wuppalapati dedicated himself to studying for his upcoming "Jeopardy!" appearance, making good use of four years of high school quiz bowl experience. Combing through “probably 200” year-old "Jeopardy!" archives and various online study guides, Wuppalapati went into his "Jeopardy!" appearance well prepared.
Wuppalapati spoke to the “camaraderie” between contestants, highlighting that the competitive nature of the show did not hinder conversations behind the scenes.
“On stage it looks like really competitive, but what they don’t show is behind the scenes, they gave us three or four hours to get to know each other and to talk, and all of the contestants were really, really fun to talk to," he said.
Along with his fellow contestants, Wuppalapati also spoke admirably about "Jeopardy!" host Ken Jennings.
“[Ken Jennings] is a really smart guy, and it was incredible to just get to talk to him and tell him our feelings after every game," he said.
Despite his initial success, Wuppalapati maintained that he’s not necessarily seeking anything specific out of the experience, but rather enjoying it for what it is.
“It’s definitely a confidence booster. I really enjoy getting to go in there. Honestly, I’m not sure if I was necessarily seeking anything out," Wuppalapati said. "Getting to go on, you know, what was one of my favorite shows growing up, was honestly probably the best experience in and of itself."
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