South Charleston’s Derek Vance to appear tonight on Jeopardy!
By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV
CHARLESTON, WV – On June 2, 2026, Derek Vance stood at a podium inside Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. It was a long way from his home in South Charleston, West Virginia, but he wasn’t alone.
Derek placed a photo of him and his parents on the podium, as he competed in the gameshow he’d grown up watching alongside them in Poca. He was a contestant on Jeopardy!, and the episode airs today, July 3, at 7:30pm on NBC in the Charleston market.
“Even though they couldn’t be there in person,” he said, “I knew they were with me in spirit.”
Against the Odds
Currently in its 42nd season on television, Jeopardy! is the #1 syndicated show on television with 8 million viewers per episode. Contestants come from all across the country to compete in the quiz show.
The first step in the process is taking a 50-question online test via the Jeopardy! Website, something Derek Vance began doing in 2012 upon graduating from college.
“I’ve been taking the online test for more than 10 years now,” he explained. “Almost every year since that first time.”
Derek is one of approximately 125,000 people who take the online test annually in hopes of qualifying for the show. Only about 350 make it on as a contestant with host Ken Jennings (a former champion).
“Just because of the math, it’s really hard to get on the show,” Derek said. “Some people have been trying to get on for decades.”
Back in 2018, Derek passed the test and was placed into a pool of potential contestants for a test screening. But unfortunately, he was not called to appear on the show.
“There are people who have been trying to get on the show since 1984,” he said. “It’s not that they’re not qualified; it’s just really hard, again, because of the numbers.”
Undeterred after 2018, Derek continued taking the test. In early 2024, he was again successful in passing the test and being entered in a pool of potential contestants. “Then my Zoom tests happened at the end of 2025, and I was in the pool for 15 or so months. They invited me in April 2026 to be on the show, which I taped on June 2.”
Derek explained that once you’re entered into the pool of potential contestants, you remain there for two years. Once he received the call that he was going to be on the show, he only had about five weeks to get ready.
7,000 Flash Cards
How do you prepare to go on Jeopardy!? Derek says he took the path most folks take.
“I made about 7,000 flash cards arranged into 110 decks according to topic,” he said. “For those five weeks, studying was like my second full-time job.”
(Derek’s first full-time job is as a Program Officer for The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation in Charleston.)
As a lifelong fan of the show, Derek had spent years preparing for this moment. He says without that experience, of stowing information away in your mind, you might struggle in the quiz show environment. But he also knew that certain subjects were likely to come up on the show, and he wanted to be as prepared as possible if they did.
“I had gaps in knowledge areas that tend to come up on the show, like opera or Shakespeare,” he explained. “Leading up to the show, I could’ve told you plot points, authors, composers, and so forth for the 25 most well-known operas.”
He says most contestants prepare this way, utilizing a website called the J! Archive. It’s a fan website with 42 years worth of Jeopardy! questions.
“That helped a lot in determining which topics are more likely to show up,” he said of topics such as European rivers and US Presidents. “All of the contestants I met there did the same thing.”
5-Minute Warning
When June 2 arrived, Derek flew to Los Angeles for the taping.
“It’s a long day,” he shared of the process. “They film five episodes a day.”
Since he ended up getting called to play on Friday, he was able to watch four episodes with other contestants leading up to his taping.
“The producers announce which new contestants are going to challenge the champion only five minutes before they tape,” he said. “I drank a lot of coffee that day trying to stay on my toes.”
His normal one cup of coffee turned into six cups that day. And he was nervous it might not go as smoothly as he hoped, but when the time came…Derek was ready.
“When I was actually standing on the stage, I really didn’t feel many nerves: I just felt like this is what I’ve been wanting to do for so long.”
His parents wanted to attend the taping alongside Derek, but the short timeline between his invitation and the taping meant that wouldn’t be possible.
“My mom and dad were the most excited I’d ever seen them when I told them I was invited on the show,” he said. “They knew this is something I’d wanted to do for decades. It was probably as exciting for them as it was for me.”
So Derek placed a picture of him and his parents on the podium, facing him as he faced Ken Jennings to compete on the quiz show he watched devotedly for decades.
“Even though they couldn’t be there in person,” he said, “I knew they were with me in spirit.”
While Derek cannot divulge any details of the gameplay, he said it was exciting and 30 minutes felt like 30 seconds.
“If there’s anyone who thinks they could be on Jeopardy!, I would encourage them to try. You never know what’s going to happen.”
Derek left the process an even bigger fan of the show because of his experience. “I absolutely would do it again. Everyone involved in the show is excellent, at the top of their field. They know this is going to be the best day of someone’s life. From Ken Jennings to the person who called me on the phone to the person who put the microphone on me.”
“When you’re on stage, they say to present the best version of yourself. There’s no way not to do that because of the work they do.”
Watch Party, Friday from 6:30-8:30pm
If you’d like to join Derek for a watch party of his appearance on the hit quiz show, the public is invited to attend at The Bucket at Eagle View, which is part of the Eagle View Apartment Complex in Charleston.
“It’s an open invite,” Derek said. “You can come, order food, and watch the episode.”
