Asked to put together a pun involving the telephone’s inventor and a common ingredient in a garden salad, the Yalie jumped to ask, “What is bell pepper?”—the wrong response. Naam, however, buzzed in with “What is Alexander Bell Pepper,” which the judges ruled correct. Basin had no reply to the puzzler.

That consultation with the show’s judges appeared to take only a moment to television viewers, but Naam said a similar controversy involving one of the Eli’s responses had in fact taken far longer in person than it did on screen.

Skillful editing of such intermissions brought the taping, which lasted close to an hour in real time, down to around 30 minutes, she said.

“It was amazing how fast they made everything go,” Naam said.

And after meeting Trebek in person, Naam also chalked up the host’s patented on-screen charm to the show’s producers.

“I’d say it’s the magic of the editing room for sure,” she quipped.

—Staff writer Simon W. Vozick-Levinson can be reached at vozick@fas.harvard.edu.