By Georgia Jackson, University Communications and Marketing
Jonathan Scott Perry, an associate professor of history at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus, traveled to Los Angeles during winter break to compete in the game show “Jeopardy!” Of an estimated 100,000 hopefuls, only 400 individuals make it through the screening process to the “Jeopardy!” stage each year. Perry's performance will air Thursday, Feb. 9.
“It’s a lot harder than yelling at the TV at home,” said Perry, who has been a fan of the game show since it was syndicated in 1984. “I had no idea what I was in for. I never got the hang of the clicker."
An ancient historian by training, Perry teaches a range of courses in the Department of History on the Sarasota-Manatee campus. His research examines the ways in which ideas and images from the ancient world are reappropriated in modern life, and he has published five books with Oxford University Press, including, most recently, “Sources for Europe in the Modern World,” 2nd edition (2021).
“I felt confident about the history categories, but science has always been something I’m not good at,” Perry said. To prepare for "Jeopardy!” he “crammed” by studying the periodic table and watching reruns of the show.
“I practiced with a spring-loaded toilet paper rod,” Perry said. “I read online that was the closest thing to the buzzer.”
On the day of filming, Perry waited in the green room with his fellow contestants next to the iconic wheel from “Wheel of Fortune” and thought about fleeing.
“We were all terrified because we were watching the taping go on while we were in the green room,” Perry said. “I kept thinking, ‘What if I left now? What’s the worst that could happen?’ It was really scary to watch.”
When his name was called and the red light blinked on, Perry thought, for a split second, he couldn’t go through with it.
“But then I realized, I’ve been looking at a camera for three years,” Perry said, referring to the transition many faculty members made during the pandemic to remote and hybrid learning. “That's something the pandemic really made possible, in a way.”
Perry’s partner Josh Howard, director of “The Lavender Scare” and former executive producer for “60 Minutes,” watched from the audience as Perry competed against Mira Hayward and Dan Wohl — a writer for the podcast “Noble Blood” and a high school history teacher, respectively.
Two months after taping, when asked to describe the experience in one word, Perry chose, “terrifying.”
“Josh and I tape 'Jeopardy!' every night,” Perry said. “But after I came back, I just didn’t want to watch it. It was just so scary. We have a backlog of about 40 episodes that we’re not erasing because I think, someday, I'm going to feel better about watching them.”
Perry said he plans to tune in on Thursday for the first time since visiting Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles.
“I hope they make me look good,” he said.
Tune in Thursday to cheer for Professor Perry.