Red Lion resident to represent Villanova at the 'Jeopardy!' National College Championship
Red Lion resident Mitchell Macek was working his day job at the York Town Center Best Buy when he got a phone call that made him drop everything.
"The first thing I said was, 'You got to be kidding,'" Macek said. "It took about 10 minutes of reassurance, and eventually I came to terms with the fact that, yes, I was finally going to be on the show. And I had a month to really get ready for that."
The producers from "Jeopardy!" were on the line and they told Macek he was going to fulfill his childhood dream of being on the show.
Macek, 19, has fond memories of watching the show with his family, all of them trying to beat each other to the punch of answering questions and winning the daily double. It was a point of pride in the household to correctly answer Final Jeopardy.
Macek applied to be on the show about four or five times but never made it past the first test, until he got a callback for a test he completed at the end of 2020. After months of waiting, they had him to take a follow-up test in January of 2021.
"When I heard that I was going to take that second test, I was like, wait, what? I've never gotten this far," Macek said.
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He soon received the good news that he would be representing Villanova in the National College Championship. Macek is part of the class of 2024 and is studying mathematics and education.
He buckled down on his studying, watching multiple episodes of "Jeopardy!" a day and brushing up on subjects he was not confident in.
"I'm very much a math, science, technology kind of guy," Macek said. "I was hoping I would never get a religion category or other category like that. So I kind of studied up on those things, just to make sure in the off chance I get a really bad board."
He flew out to Culver City, where he joined the other 35 college contestants. He had never been that far west, so the experience felt surreal.
He went to the studio and met the current host, Mayim Bialik, who he described as a joy to be around, saying she took the game seriously and was very good at hosting.
Despite the immense pressure of navigating a new city and feeling ready for a national game show, Macek said the experience was a lot of fun.
"The moment you step on there your nerves kind of dissipate because you have to focus on the game and you just kind of get lost in it," Macek said. "I think my biggest regret is, you know, I wish I could play a million times. ... Because playing the game was so much fun. I want to keep doing this over and over again."
The Jeopardy National College Championship premieres on ABC Feb. 8 and the next day on Hulu. Macek's episode premieres Feb. 9 at 8:30 EST.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Red Lion resident to compete on 'Jeopardy!' College Championship
