New Bedford 'Jeopardy!' Winner Would 'Absolutely' Play Again

It has been over 10 years since New Bedford's Andrew Nelson appeared on the wildly popular television game show Jeopardy!, and Nelson would be happy to do it again.

"Absolutely," he said.

The 44-year-old Nelson said meeting Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, who died in 2021 after hosting the program for more than 36 years, was "surreal."

"Alex is a legend, and it was an honor being able to share the stage with him," Nelson said.

Nelson said Jeopardy! is "filmed in real-time; five shows per day, two days per week." He said Trebek chatted a little with the contestants at the end of each show, but there was no interaction with him offstage.

"He did take questions from the audience during commercial breaks," Nelson said.

Nelson appeared on two episodes of Jeopardy! in Season 30 that aired January 7 and 8, 2014.

"I was thrilled to beat the defending champion, especially since she had just defeated a week-long winner," Nelson said. "It was a close match, but luckily my strategic Final Jeopardy wager made the difference."

Nelson flubbed a Final Jeopardy question about former British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher on his second day of competition and was sent packing.

"The second night was up and down, and I wish I had a few of those questions back," he said. "However, the new champion deserved the victory."

Nelson didn't leave empty-handed. His two-day appearance on Jeopardy! earned him $13,000.

Five years before his Jeopardy! stint, Nelson won $50,000 during a two-day appearance on another game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

"I still get asked about Jeopardy! and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? all the time," he said. "It's a fun conversation piece and my shows still occasionally air as reruns."

Nelson lives in New Bedford with his wife Sarah, a Kansas native, and their two-year-old son Theo. They are all avid travelers.

Contributed Photo

A Real SouthCoast Native Would Know the Answers to These Jeopardy Questions

It was always so interesting to hear about episodes where the gameshow participants on Jeopardy answered questions about our little corner of the world. The fact that New Bedford and Fall River have been collectively mentioned approximately 30 times since 1988 is astounding.

We chose a few of our favorite questions and listed them below for our audience to work through. Let's see how many of these questions you can answer correctly. Tell us how many you got without looking at the answer.

Gallery Credit: Kasey Silvia

The 10 Worst TV Game Shows of All Time

From boring to overcomplicated to just plain offensive, we've plumbed the depths of the last few decades of reality game show television to bring you the worst of the worst.

Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky