TAHLEQUAH — TAHLEQUAH — Back when he was a young mayor-to-be, Tahlequah’s Jason Nichols became fixated on “America’s favorite quiz show,” and he’s now hoping his fifth attempt at becoming a contestant is a success.

“I still attribute a lot of positive experiences to my attempts to get on ‘Jeopardy!’ ” said Nichols. “They’ve compelled me to broaden my mind. I’ve read books I otherwise wouldn’t have; I’ve studied topics I almost certainly wouldn’t have if not for ‘Jeopardy!‚’ The process has provided me both an excuse and the inspiration to expand my horizons and learn a few things I otherwise wouldn’t have cared to, but am now glad I did.”

His appreciation for the long-running show, hosted by television icon Alex Trebek, dates back to Nichols’ childhood.

“I started watching ‘Jeopardy!‚’ in 1985 on Channel 8 while I stayed at my grandparents’ house after school,” said Nichols. “I watched almost every day for a couple of years until my family’s schedule changed.”

Once he went off to college, Nichols said he found time to catch the show almost daily, and again became a regular viewer.

“That’s when I saw the announcement at the end of the show about college tournament contestant tryouts,” he said. “This was in 1995, and you still had to snail-mail everything. But, I was determined to try to get on the show that I associated so much with those afternoons at my grandparents house.”

He sent off the pertinent information, and Nichols’s name was chosen in what he believes was, at the time, a random drawing of all postcards the show received. He was invited to tryouts in Los Angeles, and decided to find another person who could make the road trip with him for his first ‘Jeopardy!’ tryout.

“I underestimated the amount of time it would take to get to California and made some rash decisions to visit the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas that cost me a lot of time,” said Nichols. “I ended up getting to the studio about two hours before the test. After being on the road for more than 20 hours, I wasn’t in the best condition to take a test that requires you to correctly answer 42 of 50 $1,800- and $2,000-level questions in (so many) minutes. Frankly, I knew after the first five questions that all I’d done was take a fun trip, because my memory simply refused to function due to fatigue.”

Nichols’ second tryout was in 2004 in Memphis, for a regular, non-tournament show.

“People were much more serious and nervous during this audition,” said Nichols. “I believe it is because the tryouts in California are populated mostly by natives who have more chances to audition, whereas the regional tryouts aren’t nearly as frequent and rotate locations.”

Nichols believes he scored better on the Memphis test than in his first attempt, but feels he still fell short of the mark. His name wasn’t called after the test.

“According to some personal blogs I’ve read online, it can take weeks before they give you the invitation. No matter how long I’ve waited, I’ve not gotten one of those emails; however, I take solace in the fact that it, supposedly, takes people an average of six tries to get on the show.”

Nichols’ appreciation for knowledge goes back years. He was on the academic team when in high school, and was part of a group of students who won a trip to a national science-bowl competition in Washington, D.C.

“I force myself, no matter the topic, to read a feature article on Wikipedia a couple of times a week,” said Nichols. “I listen to iTunes U while I’m at my computer. Every time I have insomnia, I break out my old college humanities textbook.”

He’s also spent time recently watching as many documentaries as possible.

“I used to have a ‘fact-a-day’ calendar. I only do small things like that,” said Nichols. “I don’t rearrange my day to sit around memorizing lists of Best Picture Oscar winners or anything like that. But if I don’t make it this time, I may start!”

Josh Newton writes for the Tahlequah Daily Press.