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CONWAY – Carol Hedspeth-Lowe has spent the majority of her professional career behind a camera.

Now she gets to experience what it’s like to be in front of one.

Hedspeth-Lowe, the owner of Conway Photo, has marked off an item on her “bucket list” by being selected as a contestant on Jeopardy. The popular game show, created by the legendary Merv Griffin, made its national debut in 1964. It has been in syndication since 1984 and was hosted by Alex Trebek until his death in 2021.

The current host is Ken Jennings, who became a household name during his record 74-game winning streak – the longest in Jeopardy history. His lifetime Jeopardy winnings total $4,370,700.

Hedspeth-Lowe makes her Jeopardy debut on Friday, Oct. 25. The show airs locally at 7:30 p.m. on WVEC, channel 13.

“I’ve always been a big fan of Jeopardy,” Hedspeth-Lowe said in an interview with the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald. “Joe [her husband] and I watch it almost every night and most every restaurant in Murfreesboro where we dine out knows that they’re not going to see us until a little after 8 pm.”

She spoke of her long-time affection for trivia.

“I was a big fan of Trivial Pursuit when it came out and consider myself a passively ruthless player of that game,” Hedspeth-Lowe noted, “When I worked at NCHS-East [high school], I coached the Quiz Bowl team and loved sharing trivia knowledge with the students.”

Hedspeth-Lowe explained that she took an online test in an effort to qualify as a contestant.

“It was a short question and answer test on the computer with a 15 second timer for typing in your response,” she recalled. “I had no idea how I did because you’re not told whether the answers were right or wrong.”

Just over one month later, Hedspeth-Lowe received an email prompting her to take a second online test. Then, earlier this year, she was contacted by the show’s producers who asked if she would take a third test.

“That was a Zoom call where I was actually playing in a mock game against other people,” she said. “We held up ballpoint pens to use as a fake clicker and the host on the Zoom call tried to see which of us clicked first and we then answered.

“They were not really keeping score and it was not a full game, so again I had no idea how I had done,” she added. “At the end of that Zoom call, the producers told all of us – there were about 20 of us – that we were through with testing and that we would either be contacted within 18 months and asked to appear on the show or we wouldn’t. If we didn’t hear from them in 18 months, we could apply again.”

Fortunately for her, the call came in late February for Hedspeth-Lowe to come to Los Angeles and compete in March. However, she and her husband each had a surgical procedure scheduled around that time frame.

“I told them I couldn’t come then. They were terribly nice and asked me to send them a message when we were both on our feet and I felt like I could manage it,” Hedspeth-Lowe recalled.

She sent that message in early June.

“They called me again in early August and asked if I could be in Los Angeles on September 17-18 for taping,” Hedspeth-Lowe said.

Accompanied by Jonellen Thompson, a friend from college, Hedspeth-Lowe arrived at Sony Pictures Studio early on the morning of Sept. 17. After passing through security, she along with 15 other contestants walked to the building that houses the famed Alex Trebek stage.

“We were asked to bring enough clothing for at least three days of shooting in case we would win and have to change clothes between matches,” Hedspeth-Lowe said, adding that Jeopardy tapes five shows per day and the wardrobe staff has to pre-approve all clothing worn on stage.

She and the other contestants spent most of the time in the “green room” where they sipped coffee and got to know each other. Periodically, someone from the show’s staff would come in to go over the rules of the game.

“We were each taken in for hair and make-up improvements and then we were all taken to the stage where we got to run through test matches on the set with the actual buzzer, game board and scoring,” Hedspeth-Lowe stated.

At around 10:30 am, the audience is allowed in and the actual games begin. The champion from the previous match is paired with two opponents, whose names are randomly drawn from a hat. Every match has one winner and then two more names are drawn from the pool of potential contestants.

Three matches were taped in the morning, then a lunch break, followed by two matches in the afternoon.

“My name wasn’t drawn until the fifth match – the last match of the day. The show asked that we not tell the results of the match before it airs, so tune in on October 25 to see how I did,” Hedspeth-Lowe said.

She added that the experience was surreal.

“I’m not sure I wasn’t in a complete fog and probably even now can’t remember many of the questions asked in my match,” Hedspeth-Lowe said.

She did, however, find comfort within the professionalism of the show’s staff.

“Ken Jennings, the producers, the camera and sound people, the wardrobe and make-up ladies, and our ‘babysitters’ in the green room were literally the nicest people you would ever want to meet,” Hedspeth-Lowe stressed. “They know that we are all nervous and had anticipated everything we might ask and had a comforting answer.

“Ken Jennings is really a serious, hard-working man who wants everything to be done right,” she added. “My loyal friend, Jonellen, who had to sit in the audience through five matches that day, told me that Ken comes out between matches and chats and takes questions from the audience.”

Now with Jeopardy under her belt, is Hedspeth-Lowe considering competition on other game shows?

“No. Jeopardy is my game. I don’t even watch other game shows. This was a highlight and I can’t imagine that I’ll try to repeat it or top it,” she concluded.