With Answers in the Form of Questions, journalist Claire McNear goes backstage with one of the most beloved television game shows.
Jeopardy! has reigned as America's preeminent quiz show for decades. Launched with host Art Fleming in 1964, it avoided the scandals of the '50s (where contestants were given the answers) by flipping the script--the answers were the clue, and contestants had to respond in the form of a question. But it was the 1984 reboot with Alex Trebek as host that made the show iconic (the release of Trivial Pursuit a few years earlier and Weird Al Yankovic's parody "I Lost on Jeopardy" helped boost the show's popularity).
McNear, who writes about sports and culture for The Ringer, goes behind-the-scenes with Jeopardy! contestants and staff, including Trebek, the "sometimes mustachioed, sometimes prickly, always steady presence" who is far looser and more self-deprecating off screen. (Trebek died of pancreatic cancer at age 80, just before the book's publication.) Preparing for Jeopardy! means mastering two fundamentals: subject matter (children's books are ideal) and the buzzer (caffeine helps). Contestants who've made it to the show need to develop their strategy for selecting clues, placing wagers and, perhaps the most stressful of all, what personal tidbit to share with Trebek.
Readers will be delighted with loads of trivia: Jeopardy! contestants' comically clueless track record with sports; Saturday Night Live's take on the show with a surly Sean Connery; and the Greatest of All Time tournament, when multimillion-dollar-winning contestants Ken Jennings (who provides the book's foreword), James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter, battling for days, had to make an emergency run to Nordstrom for a collective wardrobe change. Budding contestants and humble viewers alike will feel like a part of the Jeopardy! family. --Frank Brasile, librarian