Cape Resident Wins Big on 'Jeopardy!'

A Cape St. Claire resident scored big on Jeopardy! Monday night, earning more than $23,000 and will continue on to the next round of the popular game show.

Anne Arundel Medical Center oncologist Jay Rhee said he’d dreamed of being a contestant on the game show since college. He and his friends were quiz experts, going all the way to nationals on Quiz Bowl. Since then, two of his friends have been contestants on Jeopardy!

But Monday’s episode was Rhee’s first shot.

AAMC staff hosted a viewing party with Rhee’s family, friends and coworkers. Everyone in the room booed at the other contestants and raised their voices in unison with each of his correct replies, which rang throughout the episode.

Though Rhee already knew the outcome on Monday, he said watching the show in the company of so many of his friends was exhausting.

“In some ways it’s more nerve-wracking watching myself on TV than it was at the time of filming,” he said.

Rhee’s trivia expertise was put to the test in categories ranging from 11-letter words and arithmetic puzzles to Shakespeare’s characters dying words. By the end of the show, he’d landed all three daily doubles, and walked away after Final Jeopardy with $23,601 in winnings, more than double the score of the runner-up.

Winners in Jeopardy! proceed to the next round, so Rhee will be back in front of host Alex Trebek and a new set of contestants for an episode set to air Tuesday night.

But unless Rhee manages to carve a name for himself in the halls of Jeopardy! legend, this is likely the only shot he’ll have at the show. Those who perform among the best of the best will get called back for a Champion’s Tournament. But with an average of 180,000 potential contestants vying for seats on the popular game show each year, one chance is all most people get.

Rhee’s quest to get on the show started in 2009, when he took an online test for candidacy. After that, he was invited for an in-person interview in Washington, DC, and took a 50-question written test.

Then, Rhee waited more than a year and a half before hearing back from the show, during which he questioned if he’d fallen through the cracks. He’d tried out once in 2003, but never got called back.

But in January, while en route to a trivia night at a bar, he finally got that phone call. A month later, he and his wife, Kimberly Rhee, were on a flight to Los Angeles for the filming of the episode.

Until Monday night however, how he performed that day was a closely guarded secret.

“If that gets put up on social media, it can ruin the show for a lot of people,” Rhee said.

He said he got along well with his contestants, a retired science teacher and an assistant to a wealthy family. But by the time the filming began, he said everyone was petrified. Instead of rivalry, they developed a kind of camaraderie through fear.

Though he’s a doctor at AAMC, Rhee said he dreaded being delivered a set of medical questions for fear of missing them or not buzzing in quick enough.

“You actually don’t want to get asked about stuff you work in, because there’s no upside,” he said. “If you get it right, you’re already expected to know it, and if you get it wrong, it’d be devastating.”

However, Rhee’s medical background gave him an edge for a string of answers Monday. But by that point in the evening, he had already proven himself the all-around champion by securing a solid lead.

Kimberly Rhee said the entire process had been a roller-coaster of emotions for her and her husband. But in the end, the rewards were worth the struggles to get on the game show.

“It was all so exciting," she said. "And everyone is just so incredibly proud of him."

Tune in at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ABC for round two of Rhee's Jeopardy! performance.