Southern California Travel, Part 2: Jeopardy! and Downtown Disney

This is my second post about our 2025 travels in Southern California. I recommend starting with the first post before reading this one. 

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On Tuesday, January 28 we got up early in order to stroll through Culver City. It's a really cute town, but we hadn't seen any of it the night before when we were just trying to get to our hotel without being hit by the insane drivers around us.   

  

At 9:30, we checked out of our weird-bathroom hotel and headed to Sony Picture Studios, about a half mile away. Can you guess what we were there to do? 

It wasn't a tour, although they do offer them. We were there to be in the studio audience of Jeopardy!

We audience members met in the parking garage at Sony, where production assistants carefully checked our IDs and gave us wristbands. Contestants' guests got one color, production guests got another, and the rest of us got a third color. The other groups would receive priority seating. Since they overbook all the shows to ensure a full studio, anyone they need to bump comes out of the third group. We got there early so that if they had to bump anyone, it wouldn't be us. 

Once they finally got everyone checked in, they took us to a waiting room and gift shop. 

We were there for about 45 minutes. There is a lot of waiting around during television tapings, which we first learned during our time as Mythbusters volunteers. Finally, they walked us through the lot to the studio. 

Cameras are strictly forbidden on set. However, there is a small museum behind the stage where photos are allowed. They film five episodes of Jeopardy a day with two different studio audiences. We saw 3 episodes. Between each episode, we had ten minutes to scurry down to the museum and look around. It was awesome.  

There's a ton of cool memorabilia. 

  

  

  

So what was the actual taping like? It's pretty much what you see on TV, but with a lot of people behind the scenes. There were five judges, several producers, multiple sound and camera operators, the stage manager, the director, and a photographer. The announcer, Johnny Gilbert (age 96), now records remotely, so someone else voices his lines and they get added later. 

There is a lot of waiting around between segments. The production assistants bring water to the contestants and the judges check any questionable responses. Ken Jennings re-records any audio that he flubbed (like mispronouncing a word). Between rounds, Ken answered audience questions. I asked what his dream category would have been that didn’t come up when he was a contestant. He said the first time someone in the audience asked that he said “80’s wrestlers” and then it showed up as a category not too much later. The next time, he gave a different answer and it came up. Now he doesn’t answer the question anymore. One person asked if Ken picks out his own clothes. He answered that he picks out his own clothes every single day… when he’s at home. At Jeopardy, he has a stylist. Someone else asked if he gets annoyed when all three contestants miss a question that he knows. No, he says it almost never happens and there’s plenty they get right that he wouldn’t know if he didn’t have the answers in front of him. It’s been 20 years and he’s no longer “in fighting shape” for Jeopardy. Someone asked what Ken’s weakest category is. He answered Business and Industry, which is the one that ended his streak. Someone else asked what opportunities he’s had as a famous Jeopardy champ that he wouldn’t have had otherwise. He said there have been surprisingly few, but one that stands out was appearing on Sesame Street. 

As I said, cameras are strictly forbidden on set. But they have a LEGO display of the set in the museum so that you can see what it looked like from our perspective. It's in a glass case though, so the glare is terrible. The clue board is on the left of the stage and the contestants on the right, with Ken in the middle, just like it looks on TV. The judges sit just below the stage on the left. That red box to their left where Johnny sits isn't there anymore since he records remotely. The audience sits in theater-style seating behind the judges and producers. I was seated in the second row from the bottom, at the very farthest left, with Steve to my right. There are no bad seats; we had a great view, just like everyone else. 

Here's more from the museum: 

  

The podium in the museum has memorabilia from Alex Trebek's final day as host. It's really interesting to read the clues and the contestant bios. 

  

Do you remember the Clue Crew? Jimmy is now the stage manager and Sarah is the producer. 

Of course, all of us in the audience were eager to know when "our" episodes will air. The answer: late February or early March, after the Tournament of Champions ends. 

After the third episode ended around 2:30, we were escorted back to the parking garage. Such a fun experience! If you ever get the chance to be in the studio audience for a show you love, go for it. 

Steve and I had planned to have a late lunch in the area before heading to Anaheim, but we decided to skip lunch knowing that traffic would get worse and worse the later it got. As it was, it took 90 minutes to go 37 miles. Ugh. 

Finally, we arrived at the Grand Californian. Ahhh, time to relax! While it is quite expensive, we've found splurging on the Grand Californian to be well worth it for us. The location can't be beat and the hotel itself is top-notch. We'd rather skimp on other things in order to be able to stay there. For example, for this trip we bought single-day tickets to Disneyland and California Adventure, without the park-hopper or Lightning Lane add-ons. That helped keep costs down a bit. 

The hotel had a gorgeous Lunar New Year display in the lobby, celebrating the Year of the Snake. The snake, made of rice krispie treats, white chocolate, and fondant, is cleverly designed to be a Hidden Mickey. 

After we got settled in our room, we headed to Downtown Disney. We had a delicious dinner at Naples Ristorante, popped in and out of a bunch of shops, and then strolled leisurely toward the Disneyland Hotel. 

They've redone the pool area since the last time we were there. It's really nice. I love the Monorail theme. 

And this area with Steamboat Willie in black and white - I love it! The colorful splash pad is awesome too. 

Next, we checked out the Pixar Place Hotel. The last time we were there, it was still Paradise Pier. We loved the Pixar theming. 

  

We stopped for dessert at the outstanding Great Maple Eatery. We highly recommend their seasonal donuts. And then it was back to the Grand Californian to get a good night's sleep. 

The next day, we visited Disneyland for the first time in ten years. I'll tell you all about that tomorrow.