You know what they say: If the blind date doesn’t pan out, it still might end up being the story you tell Alex Trebek on “Jeopardy!” one day. Or something like that.
On the Dec. 8 episode of ”Jeopardy!”, Boston health care data analyst Ben Raphel, 31, told Trebek, 77, how he once went on a blind date courtesy of the Globe. Raphel was featured in the Nov. 3, 2016, installment of “Dinner With Cupid,” the Globe Magazine’s popular blind date column.
While that dinner at Cafe Sushi in Cambridge didn’t pan out, he told the host that his current girlfriend did read that article before they dated.
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“[I mentioned] to Trebek that we got $100 to have a sushi dinner. I think he was intrigued by the idea of the column,” Raphel told the Globe.
According to “Dinner With Cupid,” Raphel’s interests include “hosting trivia.” He hosts a “Geeks Who Drink” pub trivia night at The Rising in Cambridge each Tuesday at 7:30.
Landing on ”Jeopardy!” — and winning — has been a longtime bucket-list item for the St. Johnsbury, Vt., native. He was scheduled to appear on the show again Monday night.
“I’ve been watching the show almost all my life, and auditioned multiple times before getting the callback this time,” Raphel said.
He won the game Dec. 8 and took home $25,201, besting defending champ Kyle Becker and contestant Laura Miller.
With $15,600 going into Final Jeopardy, the analyst risked $9,601 in the category “Primetime TV Actresses,” and correctly answered that “Law & Order: SVU” ’s Mariska Hargitay is the longest-running female character on a prime-time non-animated series.