As a baby, Steve Greene’s first word was “jeopardy.”
Having grown up in a family that watched “Jeopardy!” every night, Greene has been waiting for a chance to compete on the television show for most of his life.
Next week, the fourth-year political science student will appear on the “Jeopardy! College Championship” series. In the tournament, which will begin airing Monday, he will be pitted against 14 other students from across the nation.
Greene said trying to get on the show was a difficult process that was two years in the making.
He began by participating in several of UCLA’s trivia events. In his first year, Greene won the World Series of Pop Culture Challenge, a UCLA-hosted event that tested knowledge of subjects ranging from Disney songs to “Guitar Hero” facts. During his second year, he competed with several of his friends in the College Bowl, another UCLA event in which teams of four students answer random trivia facts.
Richie Ferris, a fourth-year statistics student, was one of Greene’s teammates in the College Bowl.
“We were just filler seats,” Ferris said, noting that he and his other two teammates did not really contribute much. “(Greene) sort of blew (the competition) away.”
However, Greene’s official path toward appearing on “Jeopardy!” began during another time during his second year, when he took the application test online in Powell Library. While he tried out that year to appear on the show, he did not make the cut.
The following year, he was called back and became the only alternate for the college-level show. As an alternate, Greene’s job was to stay backstage in case any contestants were unable to attend. But nobody dropped out. Still, he said, being backstage gave him insight into how the show worked.
When he did not hear back from the show about trying out for the next College Championship edition, Greene tried out for the adult version of “Jeopardy!” After making it to auditions in January, he learned that, as an alternate, he was guaranteed an audition for the upcoming College Championship. In September, he was told he had finally made it on the show.
“It was something I never felt would actually have happened,” Greene said. “It was … sheer happiness.”
To prepare for the competition, Greene used several online websites to study, including the quiz website Sporcle as well as the fan-created J! Archive, which contains almost all previous “Jeopardy!” categories, questions and answers.
Greene said one of his competitors brought a replica of the buzzer used on the show to practice with.
“The game is 65 percent buzzer battle and 35 percent actual smarts,” he said.
Greene’s father was a huge influence on him while growing up, imparting his love of trivia and random facts to his son.
“(The two) have a gift of keeping knowledge at the forefront of their brain,” said Marci Greene, Steve Greene’s mother.
When the family went on cruises, Steve Greene and his father would often compete together on the trivia nights hosted on the cruise ship.
“Anytime there is something trivia-related, he and his dad are there,” Marci Greene said.
The “Jeopardy!” College Championship was filmed Oct. 18-19 in Los Angeles County’s Culver City, but Greene said he could not reveal the results before the show airs.
Greene said he found the experience with the other 14 contestants more laid back this time than it was the year before when he was an alternate.
“All of us just bonded as a group,” he said.
Greene is the third UCLA student in the last three years to appear on the “Jeopardy!” College Championship series. Cliff Galiher, now an alumnus, won the championship as a second-year-student in 2007 and went on to appear in the show’s Tournament of Champions. Last year, Ryan Stoffers, a third-year mathematics and economics student, placed as the tournament’s first runner-up.
The show will begin airing on Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. If he wins, Greene will receive $100,000 dollars. Greene, his family and several of his friends who watched him compete already know the results.
“I’ve always known he was like a trivia master,” said Ferris, who went to the taping to support Greene. “Seeing him up there with the UCLA sweatshirt made me really proud.”