Kristine Lin

Junior Forrest Chou takes the tryout test for a “Jeopardy!” game show kicking off at 4:50 p.m. today in the Haymarket Theater. According to Chou, his interest was piqued by the Schoology post. “I was just scrolling on Schoology, being the addictive social media it is, and I saw it [Paly “Jeopardy!”] on there,” Chou said. “I hope to see everybody there.”

From geography to current events, Palo Alto High School students will be able to test their knowledge on a wide range of topics during a “Jeopardy!” game show kicking off at 4:50 p.m. today in the Haymarket Theater. 

Arranged by the Associated Student Body, the activity is ASB Studios’ second live event, following a student talent show back in February.

Sophomore Class President David Wu said that the idea for a school-wide “Jeopardy!” game show emerged from student interests.

“We got the idea for the ‘Jeopardy!’ event through looking for reality TV shows that students are familiar with and excited about,” Wu said. 

Wu said that he partnered with math teacher and former “Jeopardy!” star Daniel Nguyen to help organize the logistics behind running the game.

“We were really happy that Mr. Nguyen, our very own superstar celebrity ‘Jeopardy!’ champion, agreed to host,” Wu said. “There was a lot of coordination between ASB, Mr. Nguyen and Mr. [Kyle] Langdon from Theater Facilities, as well as [sophomore] Omkar [Perinkulam], who was amazing in helping us with lighting.”

Contestants for the game were chosen through tryouts last week, which included taking a 20-question multiple choice test. Out of all the participants, only the highest-scoring student from each class was selected. The winners were freshman Summer Mehta, sophomore Khai Gordon, junior Forrest Chou and senior Hadas Hart.

Hart, who is an avid fan of the game show, said she looks forward to participating.

“I’m pretty excited to participate in it because I watch ‘Jeopardy!’ at home and I think it’ll be fun to try and see what it’s like to do it for real,” Hart said. “I’m honestly not really going to prepare for it because I’m mainly just in it for fun.”

Chou said he was inspired to try out after Nguyen’s encouragement.

“I have Mr. Nguyen for stats, and he’s really inspiring and enthusiastic about ‘Jeopardy!’,” Chou said. “So I thought it’d be kind of nerdy and fun to do the same thing.”

According to Chou, he will prepare more by reading random trivia knowledge.

“It [the test] was just typical trivia stuff like really boring Forbes stuff,” Chou said. “I’ll definitely try to prepare a bit and take some of Mr. Nguyen’s tips.”

All students, parents and staff are encouraged to attend, and food will be provided.