Professor Anthony Niblett Wins Jeopardy

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Alex Trebek (left) with UofT law professor Anthony Niblett (right)
Alex Trebek (left) with UofT law professor Anthony Niblett (right)

Ever wondered if your mad trivia skills will take you places? Well, U of T Law professor and trivia wizard Anthony Niblett went all the way to the top. Appearing on Jeopardy, Niblett managed to win his first game on Christmas Day, and came in second the following day.

The British-born, Australian-raised, American-educated, and Canadian-resident academic is a regular trivia player. Niblett, who teaches first year contracts and regularly hosts trivia games during pub nights, has been playing on trivia teams for about ten years now. With winnings of $19,601 dollars and $2,000 dollars in his first and second games, respectively, he plans on heading to Iceland in May after the end of the 2014 winter term.

As for getting on the show in the first place, not unlike law school, there’s a test.

“I always liked trivia and when the news of the online test first came out, all of my friends were taking it,” said Niblett. “Some of my friends are much better at trivia than me and I am sure they got better scores on the test. I think there must be some sort of randomization in who gets selected to audition.”

“Apparently 200 000 people sign up for the online test. It is 50 questions, for which you get 10 seconds each to answer,” explained Niblett in an interview. “They do not tell you if you pass. Nor do they tell you how many people pass in general.”

A few months after that, Niblett got an email inviting him to audition down in Detroit. Another 50 questions, a practice game, and then an interview later, he went back home to wait once again.

It was only 3 months later, explained Niblett that, “I got a phone call saying come down to LA,” telling him they wanted to tape an episode.

“I just applied once. It was very bizarre and all happened so quickly from the first test to the audition to the getting on and then the one day of taping,” said Niblett, “It was one of the strangest days of my life.”

As for Alex Trebek, long time Jeopardy host, who is Canadian, “he was wondering why I did not speak Canadian, and why I spoke so funny,” said Niblett. “During both the audition and just before the taping they said, ‘stop faking the accent.’”

“It is a big item off the bucket list,” said Niblett. “The day of the taping was one of the strangest days of my life, but it was great! A lot of fun. I really enjoyed the whole experience.”

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