I’m a fan of the game show Jeopardy! but never imagined I would be smart enough not to embarrass myself as an actual contestant. But two events happened recently on the show that may make me reconsider.

The first was an episode which featured a category called “Talkin’ Football”. I knew all the answers to all the clues in the entire category. The three contestants that day apparently had very little football knowledge. As they went through the category, none of the contestants even attempted to answer any of the clues.

Alex Trebeck, the long-time host of the show, the audience, and even the contestants, got a chuckle out of the situation as this video clip of the episode shows.

I have never seen this happen before where none of the contestants even attempt to answer any of the clues in an entire category.

The second thing that happened recently to give me hope as a contestant was an episode where a contestant who was in the hole by about -$2,000.00 at the end of the first round came back and won the contest in the second round. I can easily imagine myself being in the hole by $2K but coming back to win the contest would be highly doubtful.

If I could be assured that all the categories would be either about the Bible or sports I’d apply to be a Jeopardy contestant in a heartbeat. But knowing I’d have to compete with categories about geography, authors, and Broadway plays still gives me pause about competing on this long-running TV show.