Since 1964, one show has been dazzling the lives of its consumers since the beginning: Jeopardy. Even in its old age, Jeopardy has remained rapidly relevant, especially in the life of Junior Kendall Alexander. What started as a purely entertaining trivia show has become a somewhat integral part of Kendall’s life.
During the year 2020, the whole world seemed to come to an abrupt stop as the COVID-19 pandemic took full swing. Being constrained at home led to household innovations as families tried to entertain themselves. These hobbies, while intended to be temporary, had the potential to become permanent solutions to nagging boredom. When stuck in the house, the Alexander family had found the perfect solution to their cabin fever: Jeopardy.
“Over COVID, [my family] were kind of trying to find a sort of educational family activity because we would do game nights pretty much every single night, because we weren’t leaving the house a lot,” Kendall said. “My dad ended up picking [Jeopardy] on his night to choose because we’d alternate turns to pick a game, and that’s where [Jeopardy started].”
What started as a casual game pick developed into a nightly phenomenon. Even though the age gap between the family members put some at a disadvantage, the game was still incredibly competitive. It had initially been intended to provide just entertainment, but the impact of the family game reached much further than just that.
“After that, we just kind of continued playing more and more, and I’ve definitely noticed myself and my other family members getting better at it, so it’s become a closer competition,” Kendall said. “Even with the age gap between my sister, parents, and me. I think it’s brought us closer together, especially during the school year. Things get busy, and people are in and out of the house at different times, and so I think just the 20 or 30 minutes that the game takes definitely brings our family closer together. Also, we’re a family that loves competition and game nights, and so there’s definitely a lot of healthy competition going on between us.”
Even once COVID came to an end, the addictive properties of the game kept its grip on the Kendall, and the friendly competitive nature of it only strengthened its grip. Although the nightly aspect of the game isn’t exactly the same, Kendall tries to fit it into her schedule as much as she can.
“We don’t do it every night, but we do it every night that we can,” Kendall said. “A lot of times, I’ll have homework or won’t be home, or my dad’s gone. It’s a lot less consistent because we’re in and out of the house a lot more, but we do it as often as we can.”
Considering how often Kendall finds herself sitting down to play her family in a tough game of Jeopardy, it’s no wonder that they’ve brought their own personal twist to the game. To keep it interesting, Kendall has found herself comparing scores with her family in hopes of coming out on top.
“Because I’m in high school, I get two points for every question that I get right, and then my mom, my dad, and my sister each get one point per question they get right. And for any question where you can wager points, you can wager those points, and for final Jeopardy as well, that way you can steal the lead from someone else,” Kendall said. “We also keep track of winning streaks since we don’t keep score every game. My dad had the longest streak of 36 days when we first started playing, but since then, nobody’s really gotten that high. Recently, I got a five-day streak, but that’s about as high as we’ve gotten recently.”
Considering how much Jeopardy has brought Kendall’s family together and how personal a game it’s become, Kendall finds Jeopardy to continue its presence in her future. Not only can she see it providing personal benefits to her own future family, but the trivia-based nature of the game has also brought her a more niche knowledge in a variety of fields.
“I think [Jeopardy] also would be fun in the future at family gatherings and things like that, and to be able to do it with my own kids and family, along with my sisters as well,” Kendall said. “Then obviously, with my parents, [Jeopardy] would be fun to carry on. There [are] also benefits that come with it. For example, I find myself knowing a lot of random facts now, or different things, or seeing things I’m learning in school pop up in the game. It’s a good way to retain different knowledge and have fun.”
Jeopardy has reached into so many parts of Kendall’s life in an obviously positive way. Whether it be bonding with her family, expanding her knowledge, or applying her schooling, Kendall has prospered through Jeopardy. Although Jeopardy isn’t a very common household game, at least not anymore, Kendall still finds herself encouraging others to give it a chance.
“I definitely would recommend playing Jeopardy,” Kendall said. “It definitely seems really nerdy to a lot of people, but it really is a lot of fun when you establish house rules. It’s definitely under interpretation, too, of what you want the rules to be. I think it creates a lot of community within your family because you can tailor it to your own family. It definitely helped my family grow together.
