Not so trivial: Seattle sports anchor scores three wins on βJeopardy!β and a βlifetime of memoriesβ

In the midst of the Seattle Marinersβ win streak back in September, sports anchor Aaron Levine was going on a little run of his own, as a contestant on βJeopardy!β
The episodes aired this week, and Levine, sports director for FOX 13 in Seattle, managed three wins in a row before bowing out in Thursday nightβs episode of the popular game show.
Levine taped all four of his games over about four hours, with 15-minute breaks between them to switch outfits in the βchampionβs changing room.β
βItβs a little jarring to win a game and then go back to change, and all of a sudden youβre pretending itβs a brand new day,β Levine told GeekWire on Friday. βNo question thereβs a mental fatigue aspect to it. I have a brand-new respect for anybody who can win multiple games in a day, let alone survive an entire day and then move on to the next tape day.β
A self-professed trivia geek, Levine majored in history at Stanford University and considers that category his strongest. Itβs why heβs kicking himself for not getting Thursdayβs Final Jeopardy question correct (about Thomas Jeffersonβs Monticello) in the category βhistoric homes.β

Elsewhere in the game Thursday, Levine found what appeared to be a couple of softball Seattle clues, especially one about the Seahawks that he got right. But he failed to buzz in on a clue about billionaires and their kidsβ inheritance β who is Bill Gates?!
Earlier in the week he did get a Daily Double question correct about Stanford, and he was especially pleased to be able to shout out his alma mater with a βGo Cardinalβ fist pump.
And along the way this week, he made a fun nod to a classic βKey & Peeleβ sketch with the way he etched his name βΒ βAA ronβ β on his podium screen.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Levine watched βJeopardy!β every night with his family and always wanted to be on the showβs teen tournament. He scored an appearance on βThe Price is Rightβ at age 18, but when he went off to college, trivia wasnβt a part of his life.
Levine landed on TV again in 2004 when he was the national runner-up on the ESPN reality show βDream Job,β which was a search for a new βSportsCenterβ anchor.
It wasnβt until he was living in Gig Harbor, Wash., that he started going to trivia nights, winning free food at restaurants, and watching βJeopardy!β again. And he started making his note cards in 2019.
The numerous boxes of index cards look like something out of a libraryβs filing system, and they serve as flash cards for Levine to test his knowledge on a range of subjects β literature, music, art, geography, religion, etc.

In the decades that βJeopardy!β has been on the air, plenty of Seattleites have made appearances. Good Thinking Games CEO David Erb is a notable past champion, and Amazon employee Stephanie Hubley got a shout-out from Jeff Bezos for her appearance back in 2016.
Levine enjoyed getting to meet host Ken Jennings, who lives in Seattle, during limited time in which Jennings interacts with contestants during commercial breaks.
βYou donβt get a lot of time to talk to him, but I did feel a sort of familiarity and kinship with him, knowing that not only is he from Seattle, but heβs a big Seattle sports fan, and that heβs a huge Mariners fan,β Levine said. βIt was also cool because he was familiar with my work being on TV here in Seattle.β
Levineβs three wins are a long way from what Jennings achieved (winning 74 games), but his goal going into the experience was to win just one game, and he came away with a βlifetime of memories.β
βTo be able to walk away from that stage and say, βHey, Iβm a βJeopardy!β championβ and to have done that three times and qualify for a postseason tournament is more than I could have ever dreamed of,β Levine said. βI hope I didnβt embarrass myself too much on the stage.β
Thereβs nothing embarrassing about the money he walked away with βΒ nearly $50,000 β and his plans for what heβll do with it.
βItβs going into a college fund for my son,β Levine said of his 8-year-old. βItβs so relieving to me to just have a sum of money that can hopefully grow for the next 10 years.β