AUGUSTA — Jamie Logan remembers sitting in front of her television watching “Jeopardy!” when she was 8 years old, and waiting for her chance to be on the show.
Augusta woman Jamie Logan will appear on “Jeopardy!” on Thursday night after a big win on Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Jamie Logan
Logan has auditioned with the game show’s online quiz more times than she can remember in the past 15 years. She received a call from producers twice when she was a student at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., for the college version of the game, and then two more times as an adult for the regular version.
But, the “third time’s a charm,” Logan said.
“Funny enough, they called me on a Friday and I didn’t pick up because it was an out-of-state number, but they left a message and I didn’t listen to it, because I’m a millennial,” she joked. “Thankfully they called back on the Monday and I was just in shock.”
Logan, a self-employed writer and consultant — she is from Portland and now lives and works in Augusta — appeared on Wednesday night’s taping of “Jeopardy!” and walked away with more than $32,000. She reclaimed her throne on Thursday night and despite answering the “Final Jeopardy!” question incorrectly, she only wagered $400 and left with $18,000 for a two-day total of $50,200.
On Wednesday night’s show, Logan shared her involvement with Scrabble competitions. She started a league in Topsham and has played competitively throughout New England. Her first competition was in Vermont after reading the book “Word Freak.”
To study for the Scrabble competitions, Logan brushed up on 200 to 300 words using flash cards, a tool that helped her better study for “Jeopardy!.”
When she received the call in March that she had been chosen to be on the show, she studied up on classical music, geography and pop culture, mainly using flash cards to do so. She had around two weeks between the call and when she had to be in Los Angeles for the taping.
Logan knew what subjects she needed to focus on for the show because of watching it nearly her whole life.
“There were a couple of categories I made flash cards for,” she said. “I’m really bad at geography, I studied that and classical music. Then, movie actors and actresses. I’m terrible with modern culture.”
As a teen growing up in Portland and when she was a student at Deering High School, Logan would go to trivia night with her friends at Bleachers when it was open. In her later years, she continued to go to trivia bars in college, and more presently with her husband, Bill.
She told her husband about her win, but did not tell anyone else in her family until this past weekend, despite the fact they are “huge” “Jeopardy!” fans. Logan said it was hard watching the show after she came back from taping, knowing she had the huge secret.
“I couldn’t say anything,” she said, “But they’re over the moon.”
In fact, when Logan and her husband got married, they had to compromise on how they watched the show together, because they inherently had different rules.
“We watch it every night, and we had to compromise house rules for “Jeopardy!” she said. “In his family, they wait until the card is read out to say the answer and my family, if you read it, you can say it, so we had to compromise and wait until the end.”
She said it was “very strange” to watch herself on television Wednesday night, but pointed out how “wonderful” the group of people she competed against are. Logan did not know ahead of time who the host would be when she filmed the show and did not think she could reveal how long taping took.
Logan watched the premiere with her family, and her son kept pointing and saying, “Mama.”
“There was a lot I don’t remember about the experience,” she said. “There were some questions I hadn’t remembered. In a way, it was like seeing it again for the first time.”
When she isn’t playing Scrabble or watching “Jeopardy!,” Logan is a volunteer at the Kennebec Historical Society and helps with their online presentations. But she spends most of her time with her husband, their son, who is also named Bill, and their cat, Gene Parmesan, who is named after the “Arrested Development” character.
Logan will compete again at 7:30 p.m. Friday night against two new contestants.
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