One New Westminster man has some extra cash in his coffers after a four-day run on Jeopardy.
Ali Hasan won more than US$69,000 on the popular game show that tests contestants’ knowledge of everything from pop culture to American history.
But the road to Jeopardy wasn’t easy, according to Hasan.
The New Westminster father of two applied to be on the show two years ago. The application process is long and starts with an online test. If you pass that, then you’re eligible for an audition, Hasan explained.
“Then they draw your name randomly, and if you get called you get to go down to an audition,” he said.
Hasan’s name was drawn and he flew to San Francisco for the audition. There he had to do a second written test, participate in a few mock games and pass another round of interviews before his name was added to a second pool of prospective contestants.
“If they pull your name out then you get called, and it could be anywhere from a few months to a couple years, which is when I got called – a couple years later,” he told the Record.
Hasan was notified three weeks before he was to fly to California for the taping. To prepare, he decided to stick to subjects he struggled with like American history. This strategy would serve him well in his first game where he was the only contestant to correctly answer the Final Jeopardy question: “In Nov. 3, 1948 he sent a congratulatory telegram, then told reporters, ‘I was just as surprised as you.’”
The answer?
“Who is Dewey?”
“I tried to get as much information in there as I could but there’s only so much I could cram in,” Hasan said.
After his first win, he picked up some momentum, which carried him through the next three games – all of which were played in one day. (Jeopardy films five days’ worth of shows in one day, so Hasan actually played all four games in one day.)
“I liked it because you win and you just want to keep playing. I wouldn’t want to go home and worry about it til tomorrow, I want to get going,” he laughed.
Hasan’s streak ended on the June 22 episode when he fell to Jordan Nussbaum, a lawyer from Ontario.
“I wanted to win at least one game, so I could say, ‘Yeah I won one,’ so winning three was nice, it was a really nice bonus,” he said.
As for what he plans to do with his money (once it arrives – it takes four months to be transferred), Hasan said he’s going to spend it on his wife and kids.
“I’m a family man,” he said.
