Name: Jim Jeannotte
Occupation: Host of Granite State Challenge.
How long have you been the host of Granite State Challenge?
Well right now we’re in the middle of our 30th year and I’ve been there 29 years. Tom Bergeron of Dancing with the Stars, was host of year No. 1. He went on to stardom and I’ve been there 29 years ever since.
How did you get the job?
Actually I was doing some UNH hockey work for Channel 11 and the program was created and I voiced an interest. I was working at WKXL in Concord as my full-time job on the radio, doing freelance work, doing some UNH hockey with Channel 11 and then got it by knowing some people inside who knew I was interested.
What is your favorite part of the show?
It’s fun to see the kids grow, I’ll put it that way. The first game they come in, they’re very nervous. Their hands are sweaty, their palms are sweaty, they’re just nervous. Then they win a game and before they even leave the studio they’re ready to come back for game two. Second game its ‘Hi Mr. Jeannotte, how are you.’ If they win a third game it’s ‘Hi Jim, nice tie you’re wearing today.’ You do see them grow. All it takes is wins. So that’s part of it, to see the kids grow.
What would be your best advice for participants preparing for the show?
There’s no real secret there, they’re all nervous as I just said. So what we do before every show is we do about four or five what we call silly warm-up questions. We tell them it’s to check out the equipment, but it’s really to have them press the buttons, hear the sounds and they are really silly. We might even ask them to sing the answer. Just something to relax them.
Do you ever quiz your wife at home to stay sharp?
No, I don’t think so. She wouldn’t want that. She wouldn’t want to show me up by knowing more than I do.
Is there one student who stood out as the smartest one ever to be a part of Granite State Challenge?
No, there’s not one, but there have been several inpiduals, who I guess they’re just good trivia people. They’re smart kids, but they just had a wide variety of knowledge about everything. Not just the studying part, but just trivia questions. And they always stood out and many of them could get you to the semifinals or finals. But very rarely did a one person team, meaning one real standout on a team, win it all because once you get to a team that’s won three or four games and they have four or five players that are pretty even, one person can’t do it. But yes, there have been some that you marvel what they can retain.
How much do you study the questions before hand?
There is quite a bit of preparation. The two judges, myself and the producer read the questions, check out any potential answers that we wonder if they could be right or wrong. We go over every question prior to every show once again and we hope not to get caught off guard.
If you could change one thing about the show, what would it be?
We tried to make some change this year as a matter of fact. This year, in the last round we took points away for wrong answers. We never did that before and I’m not sure yet if I like it. We’ve taped the season now and so we’re going to review that. This year, for the first time, we did some video questions. The governor did a couple, we had a couple of TV personalities, Tom Bergeron actually did a couple. We had two this year per show and I thought that went over well.
What is the most memorable/dominant team you can remember?
What’s interesting about this is that there are some schools that accept the challenge of being on the program to give the kids an experience of seeing how a TV show works or what a TV studio looks like. There are other schools in the state that have high school teachers as their coaches, who take it very seriously. You can recognize good schools, year in and year out, who practice and they really do practice… There are certain schools that really put an effort into it and you can see the difference between them.
Do people always ask you random questions to test your knowledge?
They always like to, but I always tell them I’m good at asking the questions, not answering the questions. That’s my standard line.
Is it hard going to the grocery store being so famous?
Well, famous is in the mind of the beholder. What’s interesting, and I don’t even know I have it because it’s the only voice I have, but people recognize my voice as much as recognize my face.
Besides being the host of Granite State Challenge, what else do you do?
I’m retired from the broadcast business, but in fact I’m not. I do part time work for the probate court as a court monitor, 10 to 15 hours a week. I still do UNH basketball broadcasts on the UNH Sports network for women’s and men’s basketball.
Do you consider yourself the Alex Trebek of New Hampshire TV?
No, he’s much more brilliant then I am. He pronounces words better. Where as I ask the questions he probably also knows all the answers.
Guilty pleasure?
I’m not sure about guilty pleasures, but I’m a hacker in golf and a pretender in bowling.
Hidden talent?
Not a lot. Not a strong hidden talent.
