VHHS alumnus has 2-night win streak on TV’s ‘Jeopardy!’

Carter Spires started watching “Jeopardy!” in middle school, but he did not take the steps to be a contestant until last year. 

In spring 2015, Spires took the online test to become a “Jeopardy!” contestant and after an in-person audition and test, he was on three episodes of “Jeopardy!” in April. Spires said while he was disappointed to lose his third game, he believes it was when he played his best.

“I’m just happy to have done it,” he said. “It was sort of a dream come true to be on the show to begin with, and to have actually won two games was more than I ever expected.”

Spires, a 2009 graduate of Vestavia Hills High School and law student at the University of Alabama, said his passion for trivia came around during middle school and high school Quiz Bowl teams.

After learning he would be a contestant, Spires said he did not try to learn any more trivia. Instead, he focused on his technique. All contestants receive a click pen that mimics the actual buzzer, Spires said, so he would work on “buzzing in” while watching episodes of “Jeopardy!”.

“Since you can’t buzz in while Alex [Trebek] is still asking the question, you have to really practice your timing,” Spires said.

Spires said his past experience with Quiz Bowl meant he was comfortable with holding the buzzer, and his experience in theater helped him remain comfortable on stage and under the show’s lights.

During the day of filming, there is a large pool of contestants that is pulled from, and there is no set list of who will go next. As one episode ended, Spires said crew members would call out a few more names and get them ready for the next episode.

“It was really fun,” Spires said. “It was a really great experience. A lot of contestants say it goes by really fast because they film it in about 30 minutes, so the whole thing is over before you realize it.”

Before the episode aired, Spires joked that he would have to watch to remember all of the questions. He said he was surprised to know the answers to some of the questions, including one in a category on flags where the answer was “Fillmore Flag.”

“When I saw it come up, at first I was like, ‘How in the world did I know that,’” Spires said, noting that “Millard” was mentioned in the question, leading him to think of former President Millard Fillmore.

Being behind the scenes gave an interesting perspective on the show, Spires said. The crew members all helped keep contestants at ease, but because episodes are filmed back to back, it was a fast-paced atmosphere.

“Right when the last one ends, they say, ‘So-and-so and so-and-so are going,’” he said.

Contestants also have a limited time to talk with show host Alex Trebek. They talk with him during the introductory interviews and after the last question, but Spires said Trebek keeps a polite distance so he does not seem partial to one contestant or another.

Although all three episodes were filmed in one day and that may sound draining, Spires said each game goes by so quickly that it was an easy experience. Since contestants only return to “Jeopardy!” if they are invited back, Spires said his run on “Jeopardy!” was probably a once in a lifetime experience.  

“You kind of come in feeling this is your one and only shot, and you don’t want to make too much of it because two-thirds of people on the show lose their first game,” Spires said.

Because his run is over and he no longer has to focus on timing or strategy, Spires said he can go back to being a casual but consistent viewer of the show.

“It takes a lot of the pressure off because I felt like when I was preparing for the show I needed to be practicing,” he said, “… but now it’s like the pressure is off and I can shout off the answers whenever I want.”