Today marks the Season 2 premiere of Pop Culture Jeopardy! The second season of the team-oriented, comedic, Colin Jost-hosted counterpart to Jeopardy! will air on Netflix, and Wisconsin viewers—especially those who are regular Milwaukee Record readers—will have some localized rooting interest.
Starting Thursday, May 14, you can watch “Katschke If You Can” compete on the game show as one of the 30-plus teams taking part in the televised trivia tournament. The team is composed of Milwaukee-area siblings Rick Katschke (a Milwaukee Record contributor and the host of The Catered Quiz trivia podcast) and local actor and improviser Betsy Katschke. After narrowly missing the cut to appear on the show’s first season, they took the test again last fall, were invited to play a mock game, and eventually earned an invitation to the Alex Trebek Stage in California to compete in the second Pop Culture Jeopardy! season that began filming in January.
You’ll have to tune in to see how far “Katschke If You Can” will go in the season-long tournament. The Katschke contestants aren’t about to offer up any spoilers, but they were more than willing to talk about the experience of meeting Jost, who Rick says “was really nice and encouraging to all the teams” and getting to interact with dozens of other pop culture-minded people from all corners of the U.S. and Canada.
“This has been such a dream come true—not only having the opportunity to be on the same stage where so many legendary Jeopardy! contestants have stood, but also getting to be part of a still relatively small batch of people who have been on Pop Culture Jeopardy! going into the release of its second season,” Betsy says.
This Pop Culture Jeopardy! opportunity comes nine years after Rick, Betsy, their sister Katie (who accompanied them to California and served as their coach), and their parents appeared on an episode of Family Feud.
“I think of them as two separate special things I’ve been able to do, but am very lucky that both times it was something I got to experience with my family,” Rick says.
The first episode of Pop Culture Jeopardy! is now streaming on Netflix. You can see “Katschke If You Can” compete on the game show starting Thursday, May 14.
