Perhaps it's because the qualities that one associates with a game show host - quiet confidence, leadership, an authoritative voice - are often those that a male-dominated society associates with, well, men. In front of the camera, however, it's a different matter. 'Jeopardy!' Contestants get to pass by the Wheel on the way to their set I always asked if I could give it a spin but the producers, obviously fearing the hell that would rain down on them for letting my clumsy hands near another show's centerpiece, always politely but firmly declined.) (The two productions share the same building on the Sony lot in Culver City, Los Angeles. In a business that relies on machine-like precision and hideous efficiency - both 'Jeopardy!' and 'Wheel of Fortune' tape five shows in a single day, usually managing to get the entire recording done in the same 30 minutes it takes to watch them on TV - this is no mean feat. From the makeup chair to the director's chair, women are vital in the smooth functioning of every game show on the air.

During my time on 'Jeopardy!' I met two of the best: no-nonsense contestant coordinator Suzanne Thurber and the effervescent Maggie Speak, who succeeded Thurber and is now one of the show's producers. Of course, behind the scenes, women have always been making names for themselves on game shows.

(I do remember talking with Alex Trebek after my second show about baseball I remember being disappointed that he liked high scoring games.)īut from Trebek's soothing Canadian purr to the commanding elegance of stage director John Orlando's 'Quiet, please' before tape rolled, I do remember, distinctly, that the dominant voices around me were male.

I don't remember everything that happened during those shows, though it's not so much that everything goes by in a blur as much as that you enter a heightened state of awareness that focuses you entirely on the clues, the buzzer and why the hell the guy at podium three always gets in a microsecond before you do. I have a minor history in television game shows, so I have some skin in this game: I appeared nine times on 'Jeopardy!,' including five times as a returning champion (back before they allowed you to stay until someone beat you, a move that seemed brilliant when it loosed the ratings bonanzas of Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer on the game) and three in tournaments. Opinion James Holzhauer didn't break 'Jeopardy!' He mastered it.

The first wheel of fortune game board