Getting a Clue

With “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and “The Weakest Link” tossing gimmicks into the usual game show formula, traditional quiz programs have to work it a bit to keep their audiences tuning in. Luckily for “Jeopardy,” a condescending Canadian host and intelligent guests have made it the number one quiz show for 769 weeks. But, apparently, the big wigs are starting to freak out. This season, “Jeopardy” is determined to make a splash running with its secret weapon: the Clue Crew. Instead of the regular text, a few times per show, a video clip featuring a member of the four-person crew will pop up on the screen. They’re cute, they’re perky, and, best of all, one went to Harvard.

Less than a week after graduation, Sofia A. Lidskog ‘01 got a call from Jeopardy, packed up her stuff and moved to the West Coast. Just a few months before, Lidskog never would have believed her fate. “I was looking into I-banking and consulting,” she says. “But I also knew that I loved to perform.” As she sat in the Barker Center drinking coffee one day a friend told her about the “Jeopardy” contest. Instantly she set about making her three-minute videotape. She set up the camera by the Charles and, while getting strange stares from passersby—showed off her question asking talents. “I had someone hook me up to a static electricity machine to make the clue come to life. It made my hair stand on end,” she explains.

Her video must have struck a chord because the judges picked her out of the pool of 5,000 applications. Now she gets to spend her days filming “interactive” clues. The job has already taken her from Southern California to Northern California (and New York and New Orleans). The quartet’s planned trip to Europe was cancelled, but they have some other domestic trips lined up.

“We’re a motley crew,” Lidskog says of her co-workers, which include a mother of two, a 35-year-old segment producer and the former co-anchor of “Michigan This Morning.” She defines herself as the “young” and “fearless” one. “I’m hoping they’ll throw me off a cliff for a clue,” she adds. She also hopes to put her singing skills to use for the show. “I’m loving it. We’ll see if the American people like it too,” says Lidskog, who vows to hold onto the job as long as “Jeopardy” wants her around—although the former government concentrator does eventually want to become a political commentator, or combine politics and entertainment in some way.

For now though, she’ll just keep giving out the clues. While the answers have to remain under wraps, she has this hint: “please tell the Women’s lacrosse team to tune in for a Harvard lax clue on October 3.”