'Jeopardy!': SW Florida champ Claire Sattler returns for High School Reunion Tournament

It’s been four years since Claire Sattler won the “Jeopardy!” Teen Tournament. Now she's back on the show and trying to win another $100,000.

How does the Bishop Verot High graduate feel about returning to national TV?

“It’s strange,” she says. “It’s really strange.”

But it’s also fun and exciting, she adds.

“I guess I’m glad that they didn’t totally hate us,” Sattler says and laughs. “Honestly, it was really lovely to be back.”

'Jeopardy!' champ!:Bonita Springs teen wins Teen Tournament, takes home $100,000 prize

From 2018:Bishop Verot senior competes on 'Jeopardy!' Teen Tournament

Watch the recap:Bonita Springs teen Claire Sattler's $100,000 'Jeopardy!' win

The game show’s new High School Reunion Tournament started Feb. 20 and features 27 former contestants from the annual Teen Tournament. They’ll compete for the $100,000 grand prize and a spot in the “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions.

Sattler, 21, will appear on the show at 7:30 Monday, Feb. 27. She’ll compete against Rohan Kapileshwari of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Rhea Sinha of Chatham, New Jersey.

The Yale University senior says it was great seeing some of the friends she made during the 2018 Teen Tournament. The High School Reunion episodes started filming in late January in Culver City, California.

“We’ve stayed friends,” she says. “Some of my best friends I’ve met through Jeopardy.”

Here’s more you need to know about Sattler and her return to “Jeopardy”:

Preparing for the “Jeopardy!” High School Reunion

Sattler practiced a lot on her buzzing technique. It’s not just about what you know, she says, but beating the other contestants to the buzzer.

“That was always more important than content, being able to get in with the buzzer,” she says.

Those buzzers are big, by the way. Really big.

“I have really tiny hands, and those buzzers are MASSIVE,” Sattler says and laughs. “For no reason! They don’t need to be that big (laughs)!”

Both times she’s been on the show, she practiced at home using one of those spring-loaded toilet paper roll holders. She picked up the tip from "Jeopardy!" College Championship winner Lilly Chin.

The “Jeopardy!” buzzer is about the same size, Sattler explains. So she started practicing with the holder at home in mid-October, after finding out she’d be back on the show.

She’d “buzz” along to the TV show or sometimes take it with her when she went out.

“I would just kinda walk around looking like a crazy person pressing on a toilet paper holder, just trying to get my hand used to it,” she says. “ I told people it was like a fidget thing.”

Another “Jeopardy!” challenge: The host’s vocal cadence

Timing is everything on "Jeopardy!," Sattler says. That includes being ready to buzz as soon as the host stops speaking.

For decades, contestants were used to late host Alex Trebek’s cadence. Now there are two new hosts: Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik (who hosts the High School Reunion).

“There’s the lights that you buzz to, but there’s also audio cues from the host,” Sattler says. “And the show has existed for 30-some-odd years with Alex Trebek’s cadence, and you can really easily time when the question is about to end with the buzzer. It’s a very different cadence with a different host.”

There were rehearsals before the High School Reunion episodes were taped, she says, but you don’t rehearse with the host. You rehearse with a stage manager.

“So you literally don’t get to buzz with the actual host’s cadence until you’re onstage,” she says. “That was crazy. We were all trying to figure it out. Some people definitely figured it out better than others.”

How Mayim Bialik compares to Alex Trebek

Trebek was the face of “Jeopardy!” for decades until he died in 2020. Now Bialik and Jennings share hosting duties.

Sattler played "Jeopardy!" with Trebek in 2018 and now Bialik. And their styles are very different, Sattler says.

“You know, Alex was a very specific presence on the ‘Jeopardy!’ stage and he’s certainly missed,” she says. “I think Mayim brings a certain type of life to the stage that’s very lovely to have.

“I mean, she’s so wonderfully pleasant and funny and just goofy. I really enjoyed interacting with her.”

Bialik interacted with the contestants more than Trebek did, Sattler says. Before every match, for example, she’d poke her head out from behind the stage and wave at the contestants before she walked out.

“It was where the cameras couldn’t see her, and the audience couldn’t see her,” Sattler says. “Just the contestants. So, it was really fun. It was a little breath of fresh air right before the cameras went on, that I really appreciated from her.”

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What Sattler’s been doing since winning the "Jeopardy!" Teen Tournament

Sattler graduates from Yale University this May with a double major: Molecular, cellular and developmental biology and also theater, dance and performance studies.

After that?

She just wants to make people laugh.

“I’m really interested in comedy — comedy writing and performing,” she says. “I love comedy. I write a lot of comedy."

She performs sketch comedy and stand-up with Yale comedy group The Odd Ducks. And she’s written several plays and screenplays — including an interactive comedy play during her sophomore year that was staged virtually.

“That was super fun,” she says. “That was kind of my first venture into actual writing.”

Her dream job is working as a writer for a late-night TV talk show. But she also hopes to do professional stand-up comedy.

Being cyber-bullied the first time she appeared on “Jeopardy!”

Sattler has spoken openly about her experience with online bullies during her first run on “Jeopardy!” People on Twitter criticized her personality and made her out to be a villain on the show, she says.

Now, more than four years later, Sattler says she’s still concerned about online trolls and bullies. But she’s older and has a better attitude about everything.

“It’s going to happen no matter what,” she says.

Last time she was on "Jeopardy!," she says, she tried to prevent being bullied by “putting on a certain kind of persona onstage.”

She describes her real self as a “goofy person.”

“I like to joke around,” she says. “I like to have fun. And that isn’t always the most well-received on ‘Jeopardy!'

“Sometimes it is — but usually much better for men than it is for women. … So I was like, I have to push that down. I can’t crack jokes."

She wanted to come across as serious, polished and a “young professional,” she says. “Then people came after me for that whole persona, and I was like, ‘That’s not even what I’m like (laughs)!’ … And so it was kind of lose-lose situation.”

This time, she’s doing things differently: She’s just being herself.

“I’m going to be who I am,” she says. “If people are going to make fun of me for who I actually am — those people stink (laughs)!”

More about the "Jeopardy!" High School Reunion Tournament

“Jeopardy!” is a syndicated show that appears weeknights on various TV networks nationwide. It airs at 7:30 p.m. weeknights on Southwest Florida’s NBC2.

Learn more about the “Jeopardy!” High School Reunion at jeopardy.com/contestant-zone/2023/high-school-reunion.

Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. Email him at crunnells@gannett.com or connect on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), Twitter (@charlesrunnells) and Instagram (@crunnells1). You can also call at 239-335-0368.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Jeopardy!: Florida's Claire Sattler returns for High School Reunion