‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Alicia Korenman Explains Her Buzzer Troubles to Fans

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the June 29, 2023, episode of Jeopardy!]

Watching Jeopardy!, you think you know how you’d play if you ever made it onto the famous stage. But in reality, the game show is trickier to get the hang of than one might expect. Jeopardy! contestant Alicia Korenman, who played in the Thursday, June 29, game, took to Reddit to explain her struggles during the game, sharing some behind-the-scenes filming details in the process.

Alicia was playing against Tenysa Santiago and returning champion Bryan White, who scored a runaway game in his first appearance in the series on June 28. Unlike his first show, Bryan didn’t dominate with a large lead for the majority of the game. Alicia and Tenysa held their own in the first round, which ended with Bryan at $4,600, Alicia at $3,000, and Tenysa at $4,000. But Bryan did pull ahead in round two, ending up with a big lead at the start of Final Jeopardy.

Bryan walked away victorious in the end with $11,877, compared to Alicia’s $3,700 and Tenysa’s $1,200. This brings Bryan’s two-day winnings to $32,007. As the episode began to air across syndicated channels, Alicia took to the Jeopardy! Reddit page to connect with fans.

“Hi, this is Alicia! First of all I want to echo everyone else and say how awesome our cohort was, I could not have asked for a nicer group to hang out with and experience this with! Special shout-out to Tenysa and the J! wardrobe team for encouraging me to wear that sweater (it’s from Sleepy Peach)!” she wrote. “As to the game…. I really struggled with buzzer timing in rehearsal and was VERY anxious about it, and I hope you can tell that’s why I had a slow start!”

“They actually came up to me at the first commercial break to tell me I was ringing in too early still, and so then I sort of figured it out and got on the board finally,” Alicia continued. “So I was hoping for a better showing but the only thing I really regret is not buzzing in on the Latvia question, which I was pretty sure I knew but wavered too long about. (Apologies to my friend Indra on that one.) I actually haven’t rewatched it yet (it’s on at 7 here) so it’s still all a blur and I’m sure I’ll have more to say later on! Anyway, it was still an amazing time and I honestly still can’t believe I was on Jeopardy!!”

Fans responded with praise for her “rad” sweater and her fun fact shared early in the episode. As Alicia told host Mayim Bialik, she’s an assistant director with a tattoo of the character Maggie from the comic “Love and Rockets.”

“I cheered at the Love & Rockets shoutout!” a fan replied to Alicia’s Reddit comment. “I’m a big comics nerd so always happy when great indie comics get a bit of a spotlight.”

Fans were also delighted by Bryan’s fun fact tonight, which is that he can do an excellent impersonation of a turkey gobble. Tenysa’s fun quirk is that she found a pin easier to travel with than a full-sized stuffed animal. It was a lighthearted night of viewing for tonight’s installment.

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