Friday, October 23 Update: Dennis Golin won again Thursday night, bringing his two-day Jeopardy! winnings to $59,099. Watch him compete again tonight at 7 p.m. EST.
Just two weeks after Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek announced his decision to donate $1 million to endow a scholarship for undergraduates at Fordham, Dennis Golin, FCLC ’13, won $31,999 on the popular quiz show.
Golin, who says he has “watched the show religiously” for years, actually avoided meeting Trebek when the TV host came to speak on campus in 2011. He was afraid he might be disqualified from becoming a contestant in the future. “I mean, what if we really hit it off?” he jokes. “Then it would be a conflict of interest to have me on the show.”
After finally meeting him on the set, Golin says Trebek is “a lovely guy who does his best to make you feel at ease.”
Golin took the initial online test to qualify for the show in February 2014, before auditioning live in Philadelphia. He attributes his success on the show to his love of factoids and Wikipedia articles, and his ability to convince himself he was simply playing along at home.
“I tried to imagine I was watching rather than playing, just to lessen the pressure of the cameras and the lights. At home there’s a level of comfort you can’t replicate during the real thing,” he says. “But I tried to imagine everything as Monopoly money, and that certainly helped take the pressure away.”
Golin currently works as a video editor at the Jewish Broadcasting Service. He also produces a late-night sketch-comedy show—with his former Fordham classmates Adam Hemmert and Andrew Scherer, both FCLC ’13—on Manhattan’s public access cable network.
Tune in to Jeopardy! tonight at 7 p.m. EST to cheer on Golin as he attempts a two-day victory!
