\u201cWhen I got the call from one of the producers, I had totally forgotten about my tryout,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I found out I would be on, my main goal was not to embarrass my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
He took the show\u2019s online test in April 2018, had his regional audition in June, and taped his episode Feb. 27. He says show producers told him about 80,000 people a year take the online test, and about 5,000 advance to the regional winnowing, at which contestants take a timed written test and compete in a mock game against two other contestants. Of those, between 300 and 400 are flown to Los Angeles each year to compete on the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d say my love of reading was my biggest asset to getting on the show.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cI’d say my love of reading was my biggest asset to getting on the show,\u201d DaCunha says. \u201cThat was definitely encouraged at UCF. I was in the honors program [now Burnett Honors College] and remember reading so many great books for my classes. Also, the library was one of my favorite places to hang out.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says Richard Crepeau and Ed Kallina, both now retired, were two of his favorite professors because \u201cthey did such a great job of making their classes interesting,\u201d and his all-time favorite class was Crepeau’s Sport in American History.<\/p>\n
Crepeau says he remembers DaCunha as an excellent student \u201cand I am not at all surprised that he will be a contestant on Jeopardy!<\/em>. I wish him best of luck. I hope he does not have to face the current champion who is just demolishing everyone he plays and setting records for single-day prize money.\u201d<\/p>\nDaCunha also credits reaching the show to his time as a student assistant hired by history department coordinators Carole Gonzalez \u201901<\/strong> and Nancy Rauscher.<\/p>\n\u201cSpending all that time in the history department exposed me to many different fields of research and discussions between professors,\u201d he says. \u201cI treasured my time there and will always be grateful to them for giving me that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, DaCunha\u2019s wife, Carly, also appeared as a contestant on the show in 2012. The University of North Carolina graduate is now a textbook editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t win, but every response she gave was correct, including her Final Jeopardy!<\/em> response,\u201d he says.<\/p>\nAt home, DaCunha says his favorite Jeopardy!<\/em> questions are the ones he doesn\u2019t know because they\u2019re the ones that teach him something.<\/p>\nAnd as for show host Alex Trebek, \u201cHe is a genuine class act\u2026He is pretty much what you see on TV\u2014a gentleman and a scholar.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In his televised Wednesday showdown, the Red Lobster business systems analyst may have to face one of the winningest players in the show’s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":96540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[15992,5,6],"tags":[650,2175,7918,202],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-96520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-colleges","category-community","tag-burnett-honors-college","tag-history","tag-richard-crepeau","tag-alumni"],"yoast_head":"\n
UCF Graduate to Compete on Broadcast of Jeopardy! | 色花堂 News<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n