Wheaton teen to compete on Jeopardy

Hunter Brown's life is in "Jeopardy!"

It's not that he's taking bets on how well he'll perform on the popular game show. It's just that he's such a big fan.

Brown began watching the show with his addicted grandparents when he was just 5. Now he digitally records every episode and watches them in bunches.

Answering the questions in his head eventually led to him taking an online test for the show in November.

"It was really easy," the 17-year-old said. "That's when I thought I had a good shot to make it."

Because of his score, Brown was invited to audition for the show, as was one of his classmates. He used his outgoing personality and the buzzer skills he honed as captain of his school's Scholastic Bowl team to win a spot on the show.

The Glenbard West High School student is one of 15 contestants chosen to compete in a teen tournament for the show. The episodes will air Feb. 11-22.

The strategy

The problem with preparing for "Jeopardy!" is the unpredictable nature of the categories. Brown said the show's producers don't tell contestants anything about the type of questions they'll have to answer.

Ironically, that's also the aspect of the show Brown likes the most.

"It's all the random stuff that these people come up with," he said. "I know a lot of stuff that no one should ever have to know."

Brown said producers told him "Jeopardy!" record-holder Ken Jennings used to watch the show with a pen and paper and take notes on all the questions and answers.

"They talked about him like he was God," Brown said. "But that was like, what, two years ago? They're still very touched by Ken Jennings' presence."

In other words, Jennings' technique isn't Brown's style. He's an above-average student, but he's not someone who studies a lot. Instead, he embraces the topics he loves and absorbs them.

To that end, Brown's dream categories for final "Jeopardy!" would be related to fine arts or literature. He plans to be an art history and Jewish studies major, even though that's not his religious background.

His weakness is calculations.

"I'm really awful at math," he said. "But that's also why 'Jeopardy!' is perfect. They're not going to make us do a lot of calculations in the four seconds we have to answer a question."

Brown isn't doing much encyclopedia reading or library cramming. But he still plans on doing his best.

"I hope to win," Brown said. "But I don't think I'm going to go in there and just tear it up."

No matter how big of a tear Brown goes on, he'll walk away with $5,000 plus a free trip to Universal Studios (with his mom and grandma) and $1,000 spending money during the taping.

Brown plans to put any winnings toward college, a new computer and a new car.