If you tuned into Battle of the Generations recently, you may have spotted a familiar face, as Estevan’s Jodi Tweed took part in the trivia competition representing Generation X.
The episode aired July 8, featuring contestants from Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Boomers. Each round, the lowest-scoring contestant is eliminated. The finalist then faces the vault, where they try to answer four questions in two minutes to win the prize money banked throughout the episode.
Tweed applied for the show last summer after watching the first season.
“I saw an ad that they were looking to cast for season 2, and so I thought why not,” she said.
After submitting her audition video, she heard back in August, followed by a Zoom call and a sample test. By fall, she learned she had been selected and flew to Toronto in November to film the show.
Tweed said she was shocked to be chosen. In her video, she emphasized the importance of representing smaller communities, especially in Saskatchewan, which are often overlooked during casting.
“I was looking to represent our area of Canada, and that we could do just as well as anyone else could,” she said.
“It was a wonderful experience; the only thing better would have been winning some money.”
Tweed said the experience gave her a new respect for how much work goes into a game show.
“I have a whole new respect for game show contestants and all the people who work on game shows because it’s a huge undertaking and there is a huge crew of people who work from behind the scenes,” she said.
She felt most confident in Canadian pop culture, music and sports, while science fiction was less familiar territory.
Tweed admits she got a lot of flak for missing a Jerry Springer question, despite having grown up watching the show and knowing someone who appeared on it. In the moment, she misunderstood the question and mistakenly answered “Ellen,” only realizing her error afterward.
“People have been commenting online like, you don’t know anything, and you get your Gen X card revoked, but in that moment, I just confused the question in my get and got it wrong, there was other ones I got flat wrong, I had no clue,” she said.
To prepare, Tweed watched Jeopardy and Pop Culture Jeopardy, took online quizzes, read the Guinness Book of World Records and studied other material.
“I don’t know how on earth you would ever prepare for some of the bigger shows, like you would have to study constantly and all the time,” she said.
Tweed made it to the vault round, where contestants have two minutes to answer four questions.
“I made it to the vault, 2 minutes seems like an eternity up there, I struggled with two of the questions. I was ballpark in two of them and I had no clue,” said Tweed. “You just watch that time tick down and you’re like oh my goodness that went very fast in the moment.”
She did not win the cash prize but came close.
Asked whether success on the show came down to age or individual knowledge, she said it was a combination of both.
“We’ve seen contestants from all of the generations do OK, but I also think that we’ve seen a lot of the older two generations do really well. And I think that is just chalked up to experience and more time to absorb the knowledge and have things in your brain, and a lot of it also came down to luck for sure,” she said.
Tweed said the experience was something she would not trade, except for the chance to win.
“I've watched every episode this season. I have fared much better in some of the other vault rounds than I did in my own, but the experience itself, I wouldn't change it for anything other than (not) winning. The money would have, of course, been great, and I I don't know. If I had made it through the vault and secured the $13,250. I honestly don't know if I would have gone for the cashing question. I feel like it's pretty hard to turn down that kind of guaranteed money.”
She added that watching the episode after hers, she knew many of the answers.
“It is a combination of what you know and being able to access that in the moment and also being able to sort of manage your emotions,” she said.
Tweed said her family and friends have been supportive, and that most of the flak has come from strangers online.
“Everyone’s been super positive. We were joking that only I could go on a game show and win, and not win the actual prize,” she said.
“People have been so wonderful and encouraging, and a lot of people have been like, wow, those questions were really hard, and I’m like OK, I’m glad other people feel that way because I thought they were pretty challenging too.”
The experience, she said, was a bucket list moment she will remember for years.
Tweed praised the production team for their professionalism. While she spent little time with other contestants beyond filming and backstage preparations, she said the staff worked hard to make everyone feel at ease, especially with the addition of a live audience this season.
She recalled saying a phrase on camera that friends later picked up on.
“I hope I didn’t say or do anything … I after I made it through one of the battle zones I had said Holy Christmas cracker, which is totally something I would say, and I didn’t even think of it, and they played it and I was like, ohh, OK, I remember that now.”
Overall, she said the crew helped contestants focus on the game and the questions, despite the nerves that come with being on national TV.
Tweed encourages anyone thinking about applying for a game show to take the leap.
“I would really encourage people to put yourself out there and go for it. Because even though I didn't win, win the money, I had an amazing experience. And a story that I can talk about forever now.”
For those wanting to see Tweed take on the trivia challenge, the episode is streaming now on ctv.ca and Crave.