Calgary man’s Jeopardy! dreams realized, first Canadian to star in 2 years

A Calgary man has become the first Canadian to compete on Jeopardy! in nearly two years.

For Ujal Thakor, 42, being a Jeopardy! contestant was a lifelong endeavour. After many tests and auditions, and with tons of support, he finally realized his goal.

I’m proud to have achieved a lifelong goal of competing on @Jeopardy! – after a lifetime of random fact retention, tests+auditions, and support from incredible people (and 1st Canadian resident in 2 yrs).

Be sure to tune in to watch me on Wed, March 2nd!#Jeopardy #calgary pic.twitter.com/nunNFbIi5o

— Ujal Thakor ????️ (@UjalThakor) February 23, 2022

“There’s an online test people can write [and] there’s 50 questions, there are 15 seconds each and you write it and if you’re successful that’s about 300,000 people who take it each year,” said Thakor

Those who are successful in the first quiz move on to a second done over Zoom. Then comes a third test for those who pass.

“And people who are successful get invited to an audition done by Zoom. Just before Christmas, I got the call that we’ll be filming in four weeks. That’s when crunch time started,” said Thakor.

Thakor says he has been interested in being on Jeopardy ever since he was a kid.

“I’d enter them and compete [for] even the casual one with friends or with work and found I really enjoyed them. I did it well enough to think ‘why not give it a shot on the most prominent stage in [the] trivia world.’”

There’s also a certain method to the madness in learning how to use the game buzzer, Thakor found, noting consistent practice is key.

“That’s a big part of the game. A lot of times all three contestants know the answer to what’s on the board so that’s a matter of getting in there first – there’s a whole science [to it] there’s books written about it and I spent a lot of hours practicing that because it’s pretty frustrating to know the answer and not get to say it,” said Thakor.

He mentioned that you want to get below about 180 to 200 milliseconds when pressing the buzzer.

“I started at about 300 and was using an app to time it and slowly over the course of that four weeks got it down to 200,” said Thakor.

To help him with his practice, Thakor says he created his own makeshift buzzer by taking two ballpoint pens and using a rubber band to tie them together.

The Jeopardy! episode featuring Thakor airs Wednesday night.