Ryan Sharpe from Oakville shares his journey to getting on Jeopardy! and participating in the iconic quiz show.
OAKVILLE – On September 15, 2025, Ryan Sharpe from Oakville appeared on an episode of the beloved game show Jeopardy!, seen by viewers across the nation.
“It’s quite a surreal experience,” Ryan reflected on being part of the show, “especially after spending years watching it on TV.”
A graduate of Abbey Park Secondary School in Oakville, Sharpe played impressively, correctly answering both Daily Double questions he encountered and finishing the Jeopardy! round with a total of $27,600.
Unfortunately, during Final Jeopardy!, he got the answer wrong and ended up in second place with a final score of $21,599.
While a bit disappointing, just getting onto the show was an exciting ride for Sharpe. He mentioned that it took him many years from applying to actually appearing on stage with Alex Trebek.
Sharpe has always loved trivia; he participated in ‘Reach for the Top’, a national quiz competition for high school students in Canada.
Jeopardy! was one of his favorite trivia shows – he started watching regularly around 2018 when he decided to try out for the teen tournament.
Although he didn’t make it onto the teen tournament, once he turned 18, he applied for the regular version of the show.
The application process had numerous steps and took quite some time according to Sharpe.
It starts online with what’s called an anytime test. Anyone can take this test by signing up online. It consists of 50 questions formatted like those on Jeopardy!, each with a 15-second time limit.
You can only take this test once per year, but if you perform well enough in this online quiz, you might be invited to take another test either online or via video call.
This subsequent quiz is done with other candidates and monitored by someone from Jeopardy!. After this stage, you may be invited to audition. In Ryan’s case, he got called for an online audition.
Your audition involves being grouped with other candidates where you play a mock game answering questions in true Jeopardy! fashion using a board.
You also have to answer personal questions posed by producers during this session.
Finally, you’re placed into a contestant pool for 18 months and could receive a call at any point during that timeframe.
For Ryan, it took over that 18-month period before receiving his call. (The delay was partly due to the Writers Guild of America strike that happened in summer 2023.)
“It was quite a sudden surprise when I got the call,” said Sharpe.
He received his call in June 2025 and traveled to L. A. to film at the beginning of August.
“You think you know what it’s like there and picture yourself being part of it. But stepping onto set feels very surreal-as if you’re walking into your own television.”
Even though Ryan didn’t move forward to another episode of this celebrated trivia show, simply making it onto Jeopard!’s set is an amazing achievement since it’s been his dream since high school back home here in Ontario.
After years trying to get on air, finally standing on that famous Alex Trebek stage is indeed something special!
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