Fordham Instructor, Alumna, to Appear as Contestants on Game Shows

Contact: Janet Sassi
212-636-7577
fallersassi@fordham.edu

Edith Kealey (GSS '03)

Fordham’s Edith Kealey (GSS ’03), a doctoral student and member of the adjunct faculty in the Graduate School of Social Work (GSS), will appear as a candidate on Jeopardy! on Friday, Oct. 31. On the same day, Jean Marie McCormick (FCRH ’01) will appear on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

The game shows will be shown nationwide. In the New York metropolitan area, Jeopardy! will air at 7 p.m. and Millionaire at 12:30 p.m.—both on WABC-TV (Channel 7).

Although the Jeopardy! episode was taped in September and Millionaire was also pre-recorded, neither Kealey nor McCormick were at liberty to share the outcome—at least not publicly.

“What I can say is that it was really fun, and will be a dinner party story that I’ll have for the rest of my life,” said Kealey, who is the wife of Fordham Director of Sports Information Joe DiBari, and mother of two boys. “And, Alex Trebek, in person, is very sharp.”

McCormick is the daughter of Linda McCormick, confidential secretary to Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.

Kealey said she was encouraged to take the show’s online 50-question tryout test by her former college roommate, who was a contestant in 2007. Kealey scored well, and when the Jeopardy “Brain Bus” scheduled in-person tryouts in the New York metropolitan area, she was invited to do a mock game.

To Kealy’s surprise, many of the other candidates were on a first-name basis with the Jeopardy! representatives, she said.

“There are actually Jeopardy groupies who try out repeatedly,” Kealy explained. “These candidates knew so much about the show—they even knew when Alex Trebek had shaved off his moustache.”

Following the April tryout, Kealey said she “forgot about it.” She was contacted in August to appear on the September episode.

Once the actual show began, Kealey said that her biggest challenge was not whether she knew answers, but, rather, how well she could maneuver the ring-in buzzer.

“You get locked out if you press the buzzer too soon, before Alex finishes reading the questions,” she said. “So there is a very narrow window in which to ring in.”

Since the episode is airing on Halloween night, Kealey thinks it unlikely her family will have a chance to watch the episode together.

“We’re going to tape it,” she said. “And then we’ll have a party.”

Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to approximately 14,700 students in its four undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx and Manhattan, a campus in Westchester, and the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y.
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