UPDATE: Ocracoke English teacher Charles Temple advances to final ‘Jeopardy!’

May 12, 2011 | Local News | By: Connie Leinbach

By CONNIE LEINBACH

Ocracoke School English teacher Charles Temple advanced to the final rounds of “Jeopardy!” Teachers Tournament after winning the semi-final round Wednesday night.

Temple, 38, will play tonight – Thursday — in the first of two final rounds with the second round played Friday night, May 13.

The cumulative winner of both rounds will win the tournament, $100,000, and a guaranteed spot in the “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions, airing later this year. Temple is sworn to secrecy about his ultimate fate.

The second-place winner will earn a minimum of $50,000, and third place will get $25,000. Semi-finalists receive $10,000, and contestants eliminated in the first round receive $5,000.

In addition, each teacher will receive a Classroom “Jeopardy!” unit for his or her school.

The Teachers Tournament was taped on March 28 and 29. Ocracoke School received its game May 6 after Temple won his first round the night before.

In a close game Wednesday night, Temple’s final score was $24,001. The other two contestants, Kathy Casavant of Oxford, Mass., and Matt Polazzo of Brooklyn, N.Y., had final scores of $23,000 and $312, respectively.

“I didn’t realize until last night while watching it how close that game was,” he said in an interview today.

After trading lead position with Casavant a few times during the game, the win came down to the final Jeopardy question. Temple was in the lead at $21,800 and Casavant at had $12,000.

The question asked for the title of a 20th century novel. The clue was that “A Girl from a Different World,” and “Train to the Urals” are chapters in this 1957 work.

Casavant had the completely correct answer of “Dr. Zhivago,” by Boris Pasternak, but Temple’s answer had left out the “h” in the name.

“They stopped the play at that point while the judges conferred,” Temple explained about an action the audience did not see.

“We were all standing there silent while the judges whispered among themselves for five minutes,” he said. “Kathy was in the lead but said to me that my answer should be allowed and that she didn’t want to win that way. She was a class act and a very strong player.”

Casavant had to bet her entire amount – the maximum bet she was allowed to make — in order to overtake Temple’s lead, but she bet only $11,000, finally placing her just under Temple’s amount. Temple had to assume that she might bet her entire amount of $12,000, which would have given her $24,000. He bet $1 over the amount that he needed to end up with $24, 001.

“That’s pretty standard,” he said about how he bet, adding that in preparation for the tournament he had gone onto the “Jeopardy!” archives and studied betting strategy.

There was another viewing party last night at Gaffer’s Sports Pub, where friends and fans gathered to watch the semi-final game.

When the final Jeopardy question came up, Charles stood up and asked the crowd if anyone knew the answer. There were many shouts of “Dr. Zhivago!” from the crowd.

Suddenly, Temple was again the winner and the Gaffer’s crowd erupted in cheers, as they had after each of his correct answers.

Temple endured some ribbing by the crowd about not answering the Shakespeare questions, which everyone assumed he would know, noted Sundae Horn, who was in the audience.

“I think he got one from that column. He didn’t answer any questions wrong. He just didn’t buzz in first,” she continued. “I gave him a hard time for saying O’Toole instead of Toole for the author of “A Confederacy of Dunces.”

Temple admitted that it wasn’t his favorite book.

“I started reading it but couldn’t get into it,” he said. “It’s either people’s favorite book, or they just can’t get into it.”

School Principal Dr. Walter Padgett added that Temple has that rare mix of high intelligence and being able to relate well with students. Padgett said,“A lot of learning goes on in his classroom.”

He said Temple has been trying to get on “Jeopardy!” for a while. “We all knew that if he’d get on, he’d be successful,” Padgett said.

Temple was gracious about his win in an interview Thursday morning, noting that he was tired after another night of post-game celebrating after watching the game with many islanders at Gaffer’s.

But he’s in for two more such nights. Gaffer’s will host another night of celebration.

An avid “Jeopardy!” fan since he was a child, Temple said being on the game has been a life-long dream.

Mostly, he said, it’s been a lot of fun.

“For me,” he said, “the real thrill is watching everyone get jazzed about it.”

One thing everyone noticed was the colorful tie he wore on the show.

He chuckled.

“It was a ‘Save the Children’ tie with the flags of many nations,” he said. “I thought it was appropriate.”

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