Woodside’s Kate Laubscher to compete on ‘Jeopardy’ Tuesday

Kate Laubscher of Woodside, a 2014 graduate of Woodside Priory School and a sophomore at Northeastern University in Boston, will be among 15 students (of 12,000 who tried out) competing in the college tournament of the nationally broadcast “Jeopardy” game show.

The tournament, which runs for two weeks starting Monday, Feb. 1, will be broadcast locally on KGO-TV (Channel 7) at 7 p.m. Kate will appear on the Tuesday, Feb. 2, show.

A native of Woodside, Kate is the daughter of Nicole Sunahara and Rick Laubscher and is the first contestant to represent Northeastern University, her father said.

She is studying political science and communication at Northeastern, with minors in Spanish and international affairs.

“I’ve been watching (“Jeopardy”) with my dad and playing along as long as I can remember,” she said.

To qualify, she took an online test of 50 questions and was selected from a pool of contestants who passed the test to audition in person.

“I auditioned in New York and had to take another 50-question test as well as play the mock game on film and interview with some of the show’s producers,” she said.

Her father, Rick Laubscher, explained how the college tournament works: It’s an annual event that runs for two weeks, Monday through Friday. In the first week, 15 contestants play initial games, three contestants at a time. The winner of each of the first week’s games plus the four highest scoring runners-up overall in those five games advance to the second week.

Those nine remaining contestants play three at a time during the first three days of the second week. The three winners of those matches then play in a two-day final for a grand prize of $100,000.