For four days, Walla Walla was the home of the reigning champion of Jeopardy!
That changed Friday, Sept. 30, as David Sibley of Walla Walla lost to Cris Pannullo, a customer success operations manager from Ocean City, New Jersey.
Sibley finished in third place in final game, adding $1,000 in consolation prize money to bring his total winnings to $79,098.
But for Sibley, the rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, his Jeopardy! experience was a "dream come true."
"I would have played for free," Sibley said.
The loss left Sibley one win short of a guaranteed spot in the 2023 Tournament of Champions; however, four-game champions are eligible for the tournament if there are not enough five-game winners in a season.
"I just have to wait and see," Sibley said.
Final game
Sibley's final game was against Pannullo and Pam Warren, a high school teacher from Petersburg, Illinois.
There was one very noticeable difference between Sibley's final game and his first four: his opponents were beating him on the buzzer.
Sibley said a lot of the game comes to contestants' speed on the buzzer.
"Everyone there knows most of the answers," he said. "I was lucky that I was pretty fast on the buzzer. But on Friday's game, Cris and Pam were faster on the buzzer than me."
Pannullo jumped out to an early lead and Sibley trialed most of the game.
At the end of the first round, the score was Pannullo $6,800, Warren: $4,800 and Sibley $2,000.
Warren hung with Pannullo for much of Double Jeopardy, but Pannullo pulled away at the end to finish the round with $29,800, just enough to double up Warren's $14,000. Sibley ended the round with $4,000.
With first place and second place out of reach, Sibley decided to use Final Jeopardy! to give a nod to his church. In his prior games, Sibley did not bet a lot of money in Final Jeopardy. Host Ken Jennings gently poked some fun at this.
In Thursday's game, he bet $1. In this game that he felt was out of reach, he bet $3.
"This was a joke for my church," he said. "Because of the Trinity, we always say God is three in one and one and three. I bet $1 last time, so I bet $3 this time."
Audition process
Sibley tried to get on Jeopardy! for a long time. He'd been watching it since he was child and used to tell his family he thought he could win on the show.
Before finally being chosen as contestant, Sibley had been doing the online audition process for years.
"This was before there was an 'anytime' online test," he said. "At that point, there or four times a year you could take the test online on a specific day. And if you did well enough, you'd get an invitation to go to a second-round in-person test."
Once, in 2005 while he was attending Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, he was chosen for an in-person test.
"I didn't have a car in college, so I had friends drive me two and a half hours from Greenville, South Carolina ,to Atlanta, Georgia. I went to a giant Marriott Hotel ballroom and with 500 other nerds I took another test."
After a full day of tests and a game-play audition, Sibley was sent home. He was told if he did not hear from producers in the next 18 months, it meant he didn't make the show and he could audition again.
He never heard back.
Sibley kept auditioning over the years until last summer. when he again made it to the second round.
However, this was during the COVID-19 pandemic, so the "in-person" tests and auditions were held over Zoom. Again, Sibley was told if he didn't hear back, he could take the test again.
This time he had a feeling he'd make it.
"I started pretty religiously making sure I watched every night to practice," he said.
This July, he received a call from Sony Picture Studios.
"They were calling to make sure I hadn't gone on a crime spree," he said with a laugh. "And to check my schedule."
A week later, he was informed he made the show.
Jeopardy! experience
After finally making the show, his experience was everything he'd hoped it would be. He said host Ken Jennings, the staff and the other contestants were supportive.
Though on TV it looks like he played for a week, in reality, he was there for a day.
Jeopardy! tapes a whole week of shows in one day.
Sibley said a week's worth of contestants show up at 7 a.m. The defending champion plays in the first game — the "Monday" game — against two randomly chosen contestants from the pool.
"I was thinking, 'Please don't let me be drawn first,'" Sibley said.
He was drawn first.
After his first win, he didn't have a lot of time to celebrate. He had to quickly change clothes because "Tuesday" started 15 minutes later. After another change, and another victory on "Wednesday," the show broke for lunch.
By the time he lost on "Friday," he had been at the studio for nearly 11 hours.
While Sibley said he was glad each time he won, he was more excited that he got to play again.
"Once I won the first game, every game after that was like a bonus," he said. "They didn't even need to attach money to it, I would have played for free. I didn't go on Jeopardy! with the dreams of winning lots of money ... each time I was lucky enough to come out on top, my reaction was, 'Oh, boy! I get to play again.'"
Now that it's over, Sibley said he hopes people saw a real person up on the Jeopardy! stage, and that he came off as approachable.
"It's unique to be on the show with the job that I have, as a priest, knowing that any number of people are going to have had any number of experiences with the church, from the good to the bad," he said. " And so, I really tried to use my time to be approachable in some way, shape or form ... I hope it might give some people a different experience of what people of faith are."
Coming to Walla Walla
Sibley is originally from South Carolina. After finishing college, he went to seminary in New York. His first job as an Episcopal priest was in New York, which is where he met his wife. He said he and his wife wanted to move closer to one of their families.
His family is still in South Carolina, while hers is in Gig Harbor.
He explored job options in the Southeast but didn't feel he was a good fit for parishes there.
"Different priests have different gifts and different parishes have different feels," he said.
After applying for a job in the Northwest and not getting it, he said he and his wife thought about putting his career on hold and focusing on finding a job for her. However, while they were considering that, the Walla Walla job opened in 2018.
When they flew out to visit, they landed in Pasco.
"I looked around and said, 'This could be kind of dicey,'" he said.
But as the scenery changed on the drive to Walla Walla, they got excited. After a day in Walla Walla to explore, he said they both fell in love with it.
He and his wife moved here in January of 2019. Now, three years later, Walla Walla is home.
In fact, on Jeopardy!, you can be introduced as being from the city you currently live in, or you can use the city you are originally from. He chose Walla Walla.
"We fell in love with the town and the parish," he said. "This is home."
Prize money
So, what is he doing with his $79,098?
First, 10% is going to his church.
"That's really important to me both in my role as a priest and my role as a Christian," he said. "I know I am who I am because that's who God made me to be. And the gifts and the skills and fact that I got this opportunity is something to be thankful for ... And the way I show that gratitude is to give some money back to God's work in the church."
The next thing he's doing is starting a college fund for his daughter, who was born last year.
"I worked and scrapped my way through college," he said. "I don't want my daughter to have to experience that in the same way. Since before I was married, I had always said that I don't want my child or children to have some of the anxiety that I had should they decide to pursue a college education."
