`Jeopardy` takes local teacher to quiz bowl pinnacle
Baku, November 6 (AZERTAC). Brenton Montie competed in quiz bowls from middle school through college, so he was primed for his recent taping on Jeopardy.
In fact, the 27-year-old South Lyon resident and third-year sixth-grade social studies teacher at Centennial Middle School in South Lyon felt his background in social studies helped him answer a lot of the geography and history questions during the popular show that airs at 7:30 p.m. on Channel 4 Monday-Friday.
Jeopardy flew the Howell native out to Los Angeles and even paid his hotel stay. The episode was taped at Sony Pictures Studios. Montie is prohibited from discussing specifics of the taping or the outcome of the show, but was excited with the opportunity to compete.
“I wasn`t that nervous,” he said. “I stand in front of kids all day, so I was fine.”
Montie took part in the Teachers Tournament with 14 other kindergarten through 12th-grade educators from across the country.
Teachers play an important role encouraging and motivating students to reach their full potential, said Jeopardy executive producer Harry Friedman.
Montie`s journey to becoming a contestant began last January when he passed an online test. He went on to ace an audition and another test.
“There was a little mock game to see if you can talk about yourself and talk in front of a crowd,” Montie explained.
Then he went into the contestant pool, which can be considered quite an accomplishment when you consider that Jeopardy told him the show auditions around 3,000 people annually and only between 300 and 400 people actually appear on the show.
“But, I used to watch it a lot more when I was younger. It`s an American tradition. Anyone I talked to when I said I was going to be on the show knew about it. No one said, `I never heard of Jeopardy.`”
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