BURBANK, CA – Steven Lowell was bummed that in the early hours of his off day, he got pulled for jeopardy. Lucky for Lowell this wasn’t your average jeopardy schedule; Lowell got pulled to appear on the American television game show Jeopardy!
“I thought I was on jeopardy, lower case without the exclamation point, not Jeopardy! the game show!” Lowell said before his taping, which aired last night. “Regular jeopardy stinks, but this Jeopardy! rules! Is it awesome. Or should I say, ‘What is awesome?'”
Jeopardy is a medical back-up system. In the event a health care professional has an medical emergency, he or she can pull jeopardy. Whoever is listed as back up on jeopardy call, can fill in. Health care professionals don’t love jeopardy schedules, but it tends to be a necessary evil.
Health care professionals, on the other hand, love Jeopardy!
“I got to fill a childhood dream of mine,” said Lowell to Alex Trebek. “No, not the dream of being a doctor. The dream of being on Jeopardy!” Not only did he make an appearance on the game show, he won $24,000 and is current reigning champ. Granted it’s only a dent in his medical school loans, but it’s a start. “It was a close call with Final Jeopardy. I said ‘What is Sisyphus?’ though I almost said ‘What is syphilis?’ Wouldn’t that have been embarrassing!”
Though getting pulled for jeopardy is one of Lowell’s fears, there’s one thing that is arguably worse to him.
“I worry that one of the categories will be something like Medicine,” described Lowell, as he pulls jeopardy so that he can continue to defend as Jeopardy! champion. “Then what if I get them all wrong? I’ll be utter humiliation to me and my profession. But I guess that’s still better than being pulled for jeopardy.”
