House staff member will be on Jeopardy!

Melissa Nilles (Rep. Har's office manager) will be on Jeopardy! on Wednesday.

Don't miss Melissa Nilles, Representative Sharon Har's office manager, on Jeopardy! Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 4:30 p.m. on Hawaii KGMB 9. Melissa said that she taped the show in September but was not allowed to tell anyone about it. She also can't tell us if she won. We tried to pry it from her. No such luck. But you can check out Melissa's "howdy" piece on the show's website.

Q and A with Melissa Nilles

What did you do to prepare?

Once the taping got closer, I made sure to record and watch Jeopardy every day, using a pen as my “buzzer” and trying to remember to yell out the answers in the form of a question! I also studied a few books of general knowledge and tried to stay up-to-date on current events, but basically decided that I could only cram so much and had to rely upon what I already knew well.

What would you say was the toughest subject for you? What was the easiest?

I honestly can’t remember all the categories I saw, but in general I’m pretty strong on political facts, music, pop culture, literature and sports. I’m much less confident on ancient history, art, science and world geography.

We know you can’t tell us if you won, so can you tell us what it was like to meet Alex Trebek?

It was very surreal to meet Alex Trebek – you don’t meet him until right before the taping starts and then he’s over there reading the clues for the rest of the game, until you “chat” at the end. He takes a picture with each contestant during a commercial break, and spends a lot of time answering the questions of the audience during the other breaks. (He only thinks some of the Saturday Night Live Celebrity Jeopardy skits are funny, for what that’s worth )

Were you nervous?

I was more nervous at the in-person audition I did in Washington DC than I was at the taping, for some reason. Once I got up on stage I just did my best to focus and figure out how to work the buzzer. You can definitely tell what an advantage the returning champions have, as they are that much more experienced and relaxed than their brand-new opponents!

How would you sum up your experience?

This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it will be very exciting to re-live it when it broadcasts this week. Appearing on Jeopardy is definitely one of those ‘bucket-list’ items and I consider myself very, very fortunate to have checked it off of my list