Pop Culture Jeopardy (PCJ) is the new iteration of the popular game show Jeopardy that has its first season hosted by SNL star Colin Jost and is streaming on Prime Video. In the tournament-style game, a number of the 81 teams of three are from Canada, one of which consists of two UW alumni. 

The show first aired on Dec. 4 with its initial three episodes introducing the first section of the tournament called the knockout round. Teams competing in the show will have to be experts in topics such as alternative rock, the MCU, Broadway, Gen-Z trends and current popular celebrities. 

The UW alumni team originated from Guelph and named their team, ‘The Bullpen’ after the softball team they all play on. George Hutchinson and Tom Minard met playing Quizbowl over 15 years ago and have been playing pub trivia together for years. After deciding to audition for PCJ, they recruited Eric Sipkens as the token youngster to round out their team. Hutchinson graduated from UW in 2013 with a degree in pure mathematics and Sipkens graduated in 2020 with a degree in mechanical engineering. The Bullpen’s episode is set to air on Jan. 29 as the final episode of the knockout round.     

While Hutchinson and Sipkens talked about how they felt their Canadian background set them apart and gave them an edge in the show they also mentioned their pride in representing UW on a large international stage.

“Our times at UW were important in becoming who we are today. Watching episodes that have already aired, we see other teams shouting out their alma maters and it gives us a sense of pride to bring UW to the PCJ stage,” Sipkens said.  

UW has a reputation for its innovation and problem-solving mindset, which Hutchinson explained helped him in solving clues and answering questions on the game show. He explained how in his UW classes he was taught how to enjoy the art of problem-solving and ‘attack’ problems in an open-minded and effective manner which came in handy on PCJ.

While having two UW alumni on the team set them apart in the competition, they also had a rigorous preparation strategy for success. The team created a spreadsheet with every pop culture category they could think of and split up the work, incorporating revision into their daily routine. 

“Every day, I would try to mentally run through all of the best picture winners, in order, from 1928 to present while I was out for my daily jog,” Hutchinson said. 

The team commented on how great the whole experience was of being on the show. While they felt nervous at first they found that they surprisingly enjoyed being on a game show with Sipkens even saying that he was inspired to want to go on more game shows in the future.  

It was Hutchinson and Minard’s love for trivia which brought ‘The Bullpen’ together. Hutchinson hopes that others will also try trivia as he says it is a great way to learn new things, make new friends and have fun.