Altamont Alum has 3-day winning streak on ‘Jeopardy’

Lucy Ricketts — a 2004 graduate of The Altamont School in Birmingham — loves trivia.

She turned that to her advantage recently when she enjoyed a three-day winning streak as a contestant on the popular TV game show, “Jeopardy.”

Ricketts’ winnings totaled $79,499, according to an Altamont news release.

Her favorite part of the experience was “the way it felt to be up there, on stage, in the middle of competition,” Ricketts said in the news release. “For someone who loves trivia that much, this is the moment you’ve worked for. To be doing the thing that you do best, on the biggest stage and everything forced into a flash of thought and movement is a thrill I don’t think I could get anywhere else.”

After attending Altamont, Ricketts graduated from The University of Alabama and Savannah College of Art and Design.

She lived in Atlanta before moving to Los Angeles a few years ago.

Last summer, Ricketts took a Jeopardy test online on a whim one day.

“I was notified that I passed into the second round of testing, which involved taking yet another test with a group of people over Zoom,” she said. “I scored high enough to proceed to a third round of testing, which was a ‘live’ game-play round with other contestants.”

After this round, producers interviewed each potential contestant, and Ricketts was told she had been placed in the contestant lottery for the next 18 months.

She was surprised to get a call from a producer about two weeks later giving her some dates for taping in November. The show aired Jan. 12.

Her taping was the first day Ken Jennings, the former “Jeopardy” champion, hosted the show.

It was also the first day for the staff to be in the studio after the death of long-time host Alex Trebek.

“That was an honor, but also [an] emotionally fraught experience,” Ricketts said.

Ricketts encourages other fans to try out for a show like “Jeopardy.”

“There’s no other experience like it,” she said. “I would also add that it helps to have as broad a knowledge base as possible — listen to everything, read whatever is in front of you.”

Ricketts also has fond memories of her time at Altamont.

“My teachers helped keep me going forward and developing that love of learning along the way, which is still so important to my life today,” she said.