Davidson College theater professor competes on ‘Jeopardy!’ Here’s what happened

The chair of Davidson College’s Theatre Department competed on “Jeopardy!” Tuesday, April 11, fulfilling a “lifelong dream.”

Mark Sutch came in third, winning only $1,000. The loss came despite his “strong Double Jeopardy round,” WCNC reports.

“I made a few silly mistakes, but to be fair, it’s a truly surreal environment and you can’t really control what your brain spits out,” Sutch said in a news release.

The Final Jeopardy question was not easy: “At times they each lived on Vilakazi Street in Soweto, so it claims to be the world’s only street home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners.”

The answer is Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Nobody got both names correct, but artist Kat Jepson lost less money than her competitors and ended up winning with $20,399.

Sutch lost nearly $14,000 in the round.

The episode was filmed three months ago in Los Angeles and Sutch admits being nervous. The invitation to compete came two and a half years after he submitted an online audition, the college said.

Sutch said he prepared by playing online trivia games and reviewing “some commonly referenced lists, like the periodic table.”

“Mostly, I just watched the show and played along,” Sutch said in the release.

“Once the invitation came through, I set up a mock podium in my living room and used a spring-loaded toilet paper holder as a ‘buzzer.’ I also kept track of my performance statistics across multiple games, so I knew how frequently on average I was ringing in (and) how many questions per game I was answering correctly.”

Davidson College, just north of Charlotte, reports Sutch is the second of its professors to compete on the show. Hansford Epes, “a professor of German and the humanities,” was a contestant in 1992 and won three games, the college says.

This story was originally published April 12, 2023 at 7:22 AM.