For the sixth time in six months, a person from Central New York will appear on “Jeopardy!”
“That means we’re pretty smart up here,” joked Jo Austin, a retired IT project manager who lives in Manlius, N.Y.
Austin will appear on “Jeopardy!” Thursday night, joining recent contestants from the area including an Onondaga Community College professor, the director of secondary education at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Boonville native Kathy Wilcox May, and two people from Cornell University. David Bzdak, who teaches philosophy at OCC in Syracuse, is the only one of that group that won their episode, but could Austin be next?
Austin is a Fayetteville-Manlius High School graduate who got her undergraduate degree at LeMoyne College and her MBA at Syracuse University. She worked in information technology for 20 years at places like Niagara Mohawk/National Grid and Time Warner Cable/Charter, but remains passionate about learning and admits being “one of those nerdy people” who reads a lot.
She’s watched “Jeopardy!” regularly for years and took the quiz show’s online test every year for eight or nine years, noticing it got easier over time.
“I guess you just absorb more information,” she told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. “I rarely go to trivia nights at bars — a lot of (contestants) do... I don’t. I just always watched the show when I could and found I was getting better at the questions.”
Finally “Jeopardy!” called on Austin, and invited her to appear on the show this summer to tape an episode hosted by former champion Ken Jennings. She was one of the first groups of contestants to appear in front of a live audience since the Covid-19 pandemic, but said it didn’t feel much different because the game moves so fast that there’s no time to think about people watching you.
But knowing the answers is only half the battle.
“Knowledge is only half of it,” Austin said. “Once you get to the show, everybody’s smart.”
The other half of the challenge is timing — contestants who buzz in too early can get locked out, and buzzing in too late gives someone else a chance to answer first.
Austin couldn’t say how she did on the show until her episode airs, and admitted she didn’t even go into the game with any plans to spend her potential prize money. Her husband, a private pilot, suggested she buy him an airplane.
“If you take me where I want to go, I’ll buy you an airplane,” she told him.
“Jeopardy!” airs weeknights at 7:30 p.m. on Fox 68 (WSYT) in the Syracuse area. Austin’s episode will air Thursday, Oct. 6, 2023.