Local woman comes close to being Jeopardy! champ

Krystle Valerio of West Norriton was stopped short of the win by 'Death on the Nile'

WEST NORRITON » Krystle Valerio jokes she’s being taunted by TV ads for “Death on the Nile.”

“I was so close,” she said, the day after her round on Jeopardy! aired.

In the lead going into final Jeopardy!, the West Norriton woman had a chance to be the Feb. 8 champion, but lost to Lawrence Long, the previous day’s champion and the only one with the correct answer.

Valerio’s response to the final clue: The author’s foreword to this novel says, “When I read it now I feel myself back again on the steamer from Aswan to Wadi Halfa,” was “Murder on the Orient Express.”

The correct response — “Death on the Nile.”

“It sounded like something Agatha Cristie would write,” Valerio said. “I was hopeful, but I was thinking I probably messed it up. I was hoping the others didn’t get it right.

“I had the right author, but the wrong book,” she said. “The commercial” for the new “Death on the Nile” movie to be released in theaters Feb. 11 “keeps taunting me,” she said, laughing.

“You have to figure out how to hedge your bet of who gets the question right or wrong,” Valerio said. “I had the math right. If I got it right, I would have won by a dollar, if Lawrence had bet it all.”

Having taken the online Jeopardy! test three or four times, Valerio said she first auditioned for the show in 2015 or 2016, but didn’t hear back.

This time, after auditioning in December 2020, she was called in October 2021 and invited to be an out-oftown alternate, if needed, for Nov. 29 and a contestant for the Nov. 30 taping, she said.

The audition, done on Zoom due to COVID, comprised another test, a test of buzzer skills with clicky pens — “buzzer timing is huge,” she said, and telling a fun, interesting story.

“A lot of people have similar stories. You have to try to stand out,” Valerio said.

Her story, which she repeated during the Nov. 30 taping, was that she grew up believing she was a fraternal twin with her sister Nicole, but after taking a DNA test when they were 38, they found out they are identical twins.

“Nicole and I were super close,” she said. “We had a secret language and would understand each other. You don’t see the similarities, but others do.”

Both went to West Chester University, roomed together and wanted to do something sports-related, Valerio said. Krystle worked for Comcast SportsNet (now NBC Sports Regional Networks) for two years and Nicole for the Philadelphia (now Lehigh) Phantoms for two years, she said.

Now both are executive assistants at other companies, Valerio said, noting they have a younger sister, Concetta, who is a science teacher.

“Mom always encouraged us to read and my grandmother, who passed away in 2019, loved learning and trivia and loved Jeopardy! because she thought Alex Trebek was a good-looking guy,” Valerio said. “We used to watch with Nanny. She would have been proud of me.

“I do pub trivia with everyone else,” she said. “It’s fun. I always liked learning and remember really, really useless information.”

Tuesday night, her two sisters, brother-in-law, cousin and best friends joined her for a watch party, while her coworkers did a virtual watch party, Valerio said.

“I just told them I was on,” she said. “Everyone was super-excited and super-proud of me.”

Asked if she thought missing a daily double during the double Jeopardy! round had any effect, she said, “Not when I was filming, but last night my younger sister said, ‘I think missing that really threw you off.’

“I was hard on myself; I worked so hard,” Valerio said. Concetta reminded her that “many take the test and don’t audition,’ and said, ‘You should be really proud.”

“I’m 39,” she said. “I did it before I was 40. That’s a huge accomplishment.

“I was in tears when I walked off the studio lot, but I’m one of a small group of people able to do that,” she said. “I felt bad I lost. I went on and did my best. Now it’s a fun trivia in the life of me.”

Being on Jeopardy! “was really fun. Everyone behind the scenes is so nice and friendly and helpful,” Valerio said, citing “the contestant coordinator, hair and makeup people, microphone guy, and (host) Mayim (Bialik) was really nice.

“I had the best group of contestants; we still keep in touch,” she said. “People should try out. You might know more than you think you do.

“It was totally a great experience.”

Krystal Valerio of West Norriton