Mathematically speaking, Jeopardy! hopefuls are eight times more likely to get into Harvard or Yale than to get invited to compete on the Alex Trebek Stage, according to host Ken Jennings. Every year, the syndicated game show receives tens of thousands of applications for just 400 open spots. For many contestants, playing Jeopardy! is a life-long dream. However, failing to keep your nerves and excitement in check could cost you the game, as was the case for contestant Erin Buker, who recently made headlines for earning the second-lowest score in Jeopardy! history.
RELATED: Controversial "Jeopardy!" Champ Slammed for "Obnoxious" Game Behavior.
Despite her disastrous ending, Buker exited the Jeopardy! stage with her head held high. The stay-at-home mom from California competed against Survivor alum Drew Basile and lighting designer Graham Hicks.
By the time the final buzzer went off, Buker's score was -$7,200, which is only $200 off from the top worst Jeopardy! score, reports Entertainment Weekly. Now that her episode has aired, Buker is speaking out about her tragic performance.
In a Fox News Digital interview, Buker said being on a TV show was an “out-of-body experience” that caught her off guard more than she anticipated.
“The way they tape it is like it’s the live show. They really try to keep it really tight,” she said of Jeopardy!’s fast-paced production. “You’re reminding yourself to not, you know, make weird faces…don’t do anything odd.”
Buker explained that she had a hard time remembering the clue categories, and at one point, everything got “all very blurry.”
“I can't explain it,” she continued. “It's all happening at once, and there's just a lot of noise in the head, and it's kind of an out-of-body experience, too."
The mom joked that no one dreams of their Jeopardy! experience going “dismally,” but unfortunately, the buzzer wasn’t on her side that night. “In my head, I kept saying, 'Well, at least just make it to Final Jeopardy.' Or I would tell people, ‘I just want to make it to Final Jeopardy,’" she quipped.
Buker, however, did not make it to Final Jeopardy.
In the interview, Buker claimed her chances of winning would have been higher had it not been for her components’ super-quick buzzing skills.
"There [were] all these opportunities where you think, ‘OK, I got this,’ but it's like, you don't got this because someone else buzzes in first,” she told Fox News Digital. “I wasn't anticipating how kind of excruciating that part would be because it's like, ‘No, no, but I know this one.’ But this other person gets to get the points for it in the score and, you know, the score gets higher."
Following the June 24 episode, Buker admitted that her ill-timed buzzing was her "own worst enemy” in a post-game Reddit thread.
"It was a day to forget for Erin indeed! Unfortunately, they taped what little I was able to forget about it," began Buker’s post. "When it came to the buzzer, I was my own worst enemy, frequently buzzing in midway through the clue as if my thumb had a mind of its own. There's something uniquely frustrating about knowing answers, but not having the wherewithal to ring in at the appropriate time to answer them — that was my deficit and I own it entirely."
Despite the outcome, Buker described her competitors as “salt of the earth” and dubbed her Jeopardy! run “a great experience.”
