'Once in a lifetime'

After 15 consecutive wins, Adriana Harmeyer returned to Purdue with a total of $349,600.

Despite her loss on the 16th game, Harmeyer has become a local celebrity. During her interview with The Exponent, a fan approached her for photos.

We asked Harmeyer some of the audience’s burning questions. Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

What’s it like competing against so many different people?

It’s really interesting, and we all get to spend a lot of time together backstage getting ready for the episodes.

The downside is that people lose; you never want that to happen. My first time, I was nervous. I didn’t expect to win necessarily. I tried to think, ‘I want to enjoy this. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.’

What does Ken Jennings say to the contestants after the end of each episode?

He’ll usually mention some questions that came up during the episode or some interesting answers people gave. It’s a chance to wind things down and talk about what just happened.

How did it feel to be approaching legendary status on the show?

I was aware of that, but you just have to take each game as its own beast and try to win each one. I try not to think too far ahead because you never know what’s going to happen.

How important is the buzzer?

Most of the time, all three people know the answer, so it’s the split-second differences that determines who gets it.

I didn’t get in on the buzzer for at least 10 questions in my first episode. I remember thinking, ‘I’m not that good at Jeopardy! I’m just going to make my one appearance and I’ll move on with my life. Hopefully, I can answer at least one question while here.’ In the middle of that game, I somehow figured out the buzzer and pulled out the win.

How many episodes did you film per day?

We usually film five per day. It starts really early, and then you have a lot of rehearsal and preparation time. It’s filmed pretty quickly in succession, and the filming is almost the same as what you see on TV.

Does it get tiring?

It is exhausting, and that’s something I didn’t necessarily think about. Not only does your brain get tired, but it can also impact your reaction time on the buzzer. For me, standing there all day hurt my feet. I thought I wore comfortable shoes but had never stood in them for a whole day.

Where does your knowledge come from?

I played jeopardy games as a kid and I played Quizbowl in high school.

I’ve always liked trivia and knowing random stuff. That’s probably part of the reason I became an archivist. I can work with various things every day and talk to people.

Was a lot of math involved in betting?

I would do math to make sure I was not making a dumb mistake. I was very lucky that I was usually in the lead going into finals, so I didn’t have to strategize from second place often. Second place has to remember the person ahead, the person behind, and what everyone might bet.

It’s also tricky because only first place gets to keep the dollar amount they have at the end. Second place gets $3,000 flat, and third place gets $2,000 flat. It doesn’t matter if they ended with $5, $5,000, or $20,000.

How did you take time off work?

I was able to get some time off without explaining why. I just took some vacation time and got away with it.

My boss didn’t really know. She just knew I went on the show, but she didn’t know if I even won.