For the first half of our marriage, Sidney and I had one constant: Jeopardy. It was like the moment we tied the knot we immediately fast forwarded to senior citizen status and centered our entire evening around the game show.

Jeopardy used to be our lives.

I am not kidding. The goal of each day was to put in our time at work, eat dinner, and then find our way to the couch where we would spend the next half hour with Alex Trebek. Sid and I were the BIGGEST dweebs ever. We competed against each other every night as we kept score in a notebook. We wrote down our Final Jeopardy answers and revealed them when the contestants did. We maintained a running tally of who won the most games. It was consistent, it was intense, and it was downright nerdy.

A page of our spiral notebook that displayed our game scores.

But then we moved. We welcomed another child. We cut the cord. And Alex Trebek died. Our Jeopardy routine ceased as transitions shook up our world and life became more complicated. As Jeopardy dealt with turmoil in a post-Trebek world, Sid and I were the bandwagon jumpers who left it behind.
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Some things in life are like riding a bike. No matter how long you are away from it, once you return and pick it back up again, it all comes back naturally. A couple weeks ago, Sidney and I found out that we can access Celebrity Jeopardy episodes on Hulu. Hmmm…..Why not?

The two of us made ourselves comfortable in the living room and fired an episode up. The host had changed (hello Ken Jennings), the format was different (THREE Jeopardy rounds), and the gamesmanship took on a whole different vibe (even for Celebrity Jeopardy the contestant banter and jokes reached an entirely new level) but it was still Jeopardy. The crux was the same: answer the clues by responding in the form of a question.

We have welcomed Ken Jennings into our living room as we compete against each other in the current day version of Jeopardy.

More than four years after our nightly routine had ended, we picked up just like it was 2019. Sidney and I were blurting out answers, offering commentary on the categories, and competing like crazy against each other. Despite the return of that intensity, our re-discovery of Jeopardy also brought relaxation and sweet nostalgia.

Late at night after the kids are in bed, we are trying to find time to continue our Jeopardy binge. Ken Jennings is outstanding and we appreciate the new era of the game show. Who knows what will happen after we exhaust all of these Celebrity Jeopardy episodes but for the time being we are pretty content. Don’t Blink.