Rachel Fabi has been a professor at SUNY-Upstate Medical University since June. Her whole life, she has dreamed of being on her favorite TV show, “Jeopardy.”
After excelling on an online test, she was invited to an audition that took place in September.
“So first there’s an online test…and if you do well on the online test, you can get invited to an in-person audition, and I think they have those in 6 cities across the country. I went to Philadelphia for my audition,” Fabi detailed.
Two months after her audition, she got a call from Culver City, California – that she missed.
“I actually missed the call the first time, and I looked at my phone and it said Culver City, California, and I was like “that’s where they film Jeopardy!”
Fabi made sure to answer the phone next time!
“The next time they called I answered..they said they want to invite me down for the show. It was really surreal.”
Fabi heard in November that she was selected for a show that would be filmed in mid-January and would air February 18th. She took advantage of the weeks she had to prepare.
“I watched a lot of “Jeopardy,” it’s available on Hulu and Netflix now. So I watched every night, with a clicky pen in front of the TV…I also got an almanac and studied the 2019 world almanac,” Fabi said.
She flew out from Syracuse to California last month for the show. A lifelong dream had been fulfilled.
“I walked onto the set and I basically teared up. It was a culmination of a life’s dream, and it looks the same way it does on TV, I was just really emotional,” Fabi said.
Not only did she finally make it on her favorite show, but she won it. Fabi came from behind to win by a single dollar in the end.
“I had no expectations going in. I was just telling myself that I was happy to be there,” Fabi told me. “Up until the last second it was looking like I wasn’t going to win.”
Her preparation paid off when it came time to be on the show. Even though she was behind, she knew exactly what she was doing.
“Using some wagering strategies that I had studied, just felt really gratifying.”
Friends, family, colleagues, and students gathered at Coleman’s pub in Syracuse (where Fabi plays weekly trivia) to watch her episode last Monday night.
Only her dad, who was in the audience during the filming, knew that she had won. She kept her win a secret from everyone else.
“Because of the way I won – winning by a dollar – I wanted them to be surprised,” Fabi said.
And surprised they were.
Alyssa Indelicato, who is an administrative assistant at SUNY-Upstate, works right across the hall from Fabi. She was at Coleman’s watching.
“I’ve never seen anyone on national television that I actually knew, and yet alone, she works like two steps away from me. It was a really cool experience to see that.”
Indelicato was also impressed with the way Fabi came from behind.
“It was shocking because of the way she wagered. I didn’t know how it was gonna turn around, and then we saw that she won by one dollar, it was really exciting and really great.”
If you win “Jeopardy”, you move onto another episode. Her win streak ended in her second episode.
“It was really nice to have people supporting me”, Fabi said.
