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Yukoners on the tube for $200, Alex

Imagine, for a minute, you’re standing before Alex Trebek.The category: Yukoners on Prime Time TV. For, say, $200.
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Imagine, for a minute, you’re standing before Alex Trebek.

The category: Yukoners on Prime Time TV. For, say, $200.

Trebek: “On Monday night, this fellow made his debut on Jeopardy!”

Then that irritatingly catchy music begins…

Your answer?

If you answered “Who is Brett Chandler,” you’d retain control of the board.

“I’ve always been kind of a trivia junky,” said Chandler, who has been trying to audition for Jeopardy! since 1988.

“And I think anyone who’s into trivia games will agree that Jeopardy! is the high point of trivia.”

Nearly 20 years ago, Chandler tried out for the quiz show in Calgary along with 200 other people.

Not one passed the written test.

“It’s a challenging test,” said Chandler.

“You have to answer 50 general knowledge questions in only 15 minutes.”

He wanted to give the tryout another shot, but nothing seemed to work out.

He tried to book an audition during a family vacation down to California last spring. There were no auditions — it was all being handled online.

So he tried to audition through the ‘net.

But something always seemed to crop up on the online audition dates.

“Let me put it this way, I was prepared to fly down to the states if I happened to get an invitation to one of their other tryouts.”

In the end, he didn’t have to.

The Jeopardy! Brain Bus came to him.

In April, Chandler’s wife Diane saw the bus filling up at a gas station outside of Whitehorse.

The Brain Bus is a sort of mobile audition site that is driven to different US cities, said Chandler.

“I went online to check and sure enough they were holding tryouts in Fairbanks and Anchorage.”

So Chandler drove to Fairbanks for his do-over audition.

When he got there, the producers were “quite impressed” that he had driven 910 kilometres to try out.

This time, as many as 800 people showed up for the audition. Only 10 passed the written test.

Chandler was one of them.

Those 10 Jeopardy! hopefuls played a mock game against each other to see how they would react in a competitive setting.

Then they were sent home.

A month later, Chandler received the phone call asking him to come down to California to be on the show.

He took his wife to the taping, a sort of “second honeymoon,” and on July 25 duked it out with two other trivia buffs.

“It was a really good, close game,” said Chandler.

He has signed a waiver promising not to give away the results.

Luckily, with the show airing Monday night, you won’t have to wait long to find out.

Alright, once again you’re back before Trebek.

You want Yukoners on Prime Time TV. This time for $500.

“This Yukoner was born on the original air date of Jeopardy!, March 30, 1964.”

Who is Brett Chandler?

Tune in tonight to find out.