USFSP’s Norine Noonan appears on Jeopardy!
In 1964, 14-year-old Norine Noonan sat down in her parents’ home outside New York City to watch the first episode of a program that would become one of the most popular game shows on American television – Jeopardy!
And over 50 years later, the USF St. Petersburg biology professor was chosen to be a contestant on the show.
Noonan watched the show in its first 10-year incarnation with then-host Art Fleming and continued when it returned as a revamped nightly show in 1984.
Dr. Norine Noonan, professor of biological studies at USF St. Petersburg, with longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. She has watched the show since the program’s first incarnation in the mid-60s. In summer 2015, Noonan was chosen as a contestant and competed on March 10.
“I have watched it pretty steadily since the second incarnation of the show debuted in 1984 with Mr. Alex Trebek as the host,” said Noonan, 67. “In 32 years, Jeopardy! hasn’t repeated a question or answer, not once.”
After earning her doctorate from Princeton University in 1976, Noonan taught at the College of Charleston before coming to USFSP in 2008.
Months after taking the game show’s online test in January 2015, which doesn’t give applicants feedback on how they scored, Noonan received an email inviting her to Tampa for an in-person contestant audition in July.
“It was sort of a Jeopardy! cattle call with a couple hundred other contestant-wannabes,” she said. “We took another test, filled out personal profiles, were photographed and then played a brief version of the game. We were told multiple times the audition was not a guarantee of an appearance on the actual show.
“I had almost forgotten about the whole thing when, in late December, I got a phone call inviting me to be a contestant. Frankly, I couldn’t believe it.”
Noonan went to Los Angeles for the show’s taping in late January but couldn’t talk about it much before its March 10 air date.
“I was told by the studio (Sony Pictures) to be very careful about what I said, so I didn’t actually speak about it until I got additional permission after the taping.”
And though she could discuss it more after that point, she wasn’t allowed to reveal too much, including the results.
According to Noonan, even Trebek doesn’t know the questions until the morning of each day’s taping.
Though contestants can bring one guest with them to the taping, they aren’t allowed contact with anyone, including fellow competitors, once they arrive at the studio.
“You’re in a locked room. You can’t talk to any other contestants and your guest stays in the audience,” she said.
When the episode aired on March 10, a watch party at the Tavern that included USFSP faculty, staff and some of Noonan’s former students gathered with her to watch the show.
The Tavern’s owner, Tom Herzhauser, said Noonan stood and thanked the group during a commercial break.
“And every right answer she got, everybody stood and cheered,” said Herzhauser. “She said it was the ‘fastest 23 minutes of her life.’”
“As an armchair contestant, you think you have all the time in the world,” Noonan said. “But it’s rocket…lightning fast. It’s not about what you know – it’s the button.”
Learning the timing of the button, which is used to ring in an answer, proved challenging. According to Noonan, contestants who ring it too soon are locked out; too late and they lose their chance to control the board.
Though Noonan finished in third place with $1800, she said it was a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Now that she’s checked Jeopardy! off her bucket list, Noonan said she would like to travel to Antarctica or the Galapagos Islands.
She said she’s also planning to get a utility obedience title, the highest level, on her 4-year-old standard poodle, Paris.
Noonan hopes to enter Paris in the competition when it comes to St. Petersburg in May.
“I’ve been training her for 18 months to get ready.”
