“What is Beating Harvard and Yale?”
By Nicole St.Pierre
Kenneth Basin, a junior at USC College who majors in international
relations, successfully stomped Harvard and Yale in a nationally
televised episode of “Jeopardy” in November.
The budding international lawyer participated in two shows, scoring
16,800 points in the first round, which earned him the first-place take
home prize of $5,000.
“I signed up for the past two years but didn’t get a call back until this year,” he says.
But this time, luck and smarts were on his side. After being randomly
selected from a Web site registration last summer, Basin passed a
challenging written test which qualified him for a spot on the show.
Then, to test his entertainment value, he participated in a mock show
with casting people. “They had a sample interview section to see if we
could banter with Alex,” Basin laughs. “This is still television.”
So what was the easiest category for the Huntington Beach, Calif.,
native who minors in natural science and critical approaches to
leadership?
“I’m kind of ashamed of how well I did in the ‘J. Lo Down’ category
about Jennifer Lopez. I probably shouldn’t have been so successful at
that one,” he says.
“In general, I felt pretty comfortable through most categories, especially science and word games.”
His downfall? “In Double Jeopardy of my second round game, a ‘Women in
Athletics’ category came up that really did me in. It pretty much
doomed me for the rest of the game.”
In the second round, Basin lost to a contestant from Middlebury College (although he beat Wake Forest).
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