A team of four Andover students, Anna Cambron ’18, Eric You ’18, Vincent Fan ’20, and Lasal Mapitigama ’21, drove to WGBH studios in Boston last Saturday to compete in the televised “High School Quiz Show.”
“High School Quiz Show” auditions a hundred schools from Massachusetts and selects 16 finalists for the single-elimination format television program, answering trivia questions and winning matches in their hunts for the trophy.
Cambron, You, Fan, and Mapitigama are part of Andover’s Quizbowl team. Originally, the team intended to send an all-Senior group to WGBH, but, due to scheduling conflicts, they built a team including one Lower and one Junior.
“We ended up working with what worked really well today which was we just got the people that really showed out in Quizbowl and sort of just practiced together, built a little bit of a team dynamic and just played today,” said You, the team’s co-captain.
“I guess, today, it was a very interesting experience because for a lot of us it was our first time competing on something televised,” he continued.
The team had an advantage in co-captain Anna Cambron ‘18, who participated and placed in “Jeopardy! Kids Week” prior to her time at Andover.
She said, “I didn’t want that getting around here. I was 10, and everyone at home cares a lot about it because I live in Kentucky, so if you do anything… I was on Kids Jeopardy, it’s not the same.”
The team left campus at 2:00 p.m. Saturday and arrived at the studios around 3:00 p.m. The students started preshow procedures, which included makeup and previewing the logistics of the show. The team also did reshoots of certain moments and segments during the show.
“Everyone was really patient and the studio audience was really awesome and supportive,” You said. “We had a lot of people from school, a lot more than we expected to come… We really have to thank Ms. Cormier, because she sent out emails to the entire school and organized a bus.”
Jan Rangsisingpipat ’19 travelled to the studio as part of the student group cheering for the Andover team. As part of the live studio audience, Rangsisingpipat noted the positive energy of the staff.
“All the staff were super funny and they were really laid-back. They asked us to applaud and just keep the energy of the room up and cheer for the contestants,” she said.
Rangsisingpipat also enjoyed watching the show behind the scenes.
“Billy, the host, was actually a really chill dude… He had a normal talking voice and then his ‘host voice,’ so it was really interesting to see him switch back and forth between the takes,” she said.
