A Silver Spring businessman will take his turn in the national game show spotlight this week, in an experience he called “truly surreal.”
Aaron Lichtig, vice president of growth marketing for the startup custom manufacturing company in Bethesda, Xometry, received the call during a business meeting informing him he was chosen to be a contestant on “Jeopardy!,” capping a nearly 10-year quest to appear on the show.
Lichtig, 38, first took an online qualifying quiz in 2010, but wasn’t chosen. About six months after taking the test again in 2018, he was called to the California set to compete. His show will air at 7:30 p.m. Thursday on WJLA, Channel 7, in Washington. Viewers will have to “wait and see” to find out how Lichtig fared against an unnamed returning champion and Chicago-based sales manager Nancy Rohlen.
“I’ve always been a fan of the show and game shows, so getting to do this was awesome,” Lichtig said. “I met some really fun, smart people.”
After arriving at the set Nov. 28, Lichtig and fellow contestants were coached on the rules and participated in a practice round before competition began.
Aside from the returning champion, competitors are chosen randomly, and a week’s worth of episodes are taped in a single day. Because he was chosen for Thursday’s show, Lichtig was able to watch others compete before it was his turn, which allowed some nerves to settle, he said.
But when Lichtig took the stage, managing the buzzer remained a challenge. The button uses a “lock-out system,” Lichtig said, meaning if a contestant buzzes in prior to the host, Alex Trebek, finishing the question, their system is disabled for a short period of time, allowing others to answer the question first.
“Learning that was difficult, and you’re only up there playing for about 20 minutes, but it’s the most fun I’ve ever had,” Lichtig said.
Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@moco360.media
