(L-R) Ava Davis, Jonathan Thornton and Mike Halterman. (Photo courtesy Halterman)
CLEARWATER, Fla. | The Tampa Tamales — local couple Mike Halterman and Jonathan Thornton, along with friend Ava Davis — will be among the 81 teams competing on “Pop Culture Jeopardy!” when the spin-off series premieres next month.
Hosted by “Saturday Night Live” comedian Colin Jost, the competition is billed as “a brand-new twist on the classic quiz show’s ‘answer-and-question’ format that combines the academic rigor of ‘Jeopardy!’ with the excitement and unpredictability of pop culture.” Its first three episodes drop Dec. 4 on Prime Video as a part of the streamer’s “Winning Wednesdays” game show programming.
“Contestants, playing in teams of three, will need to be experts in categories from Alternative Rock to ‘The Avengers’; Broadway to MMA; Gen Z to Zendaya as they compete in a tournament-style event for the grand prize of $300,000 and ultimate bragging rights,” Amazon Studios shared Nov. 20 in a press release. The series will consist of 40 episodes releasing weekly in batches of three.
View the trailer below:
The Tampa Tamales are scheduled to make their debut Dec. 18. The trio traveled to Los Angeles in August to compete on the series after a lengthy audition process that began with an online test in May.
“As soon as the ‘Pop Culture Jeopardy!’ news launched, I sent it to Jonathan and Mike and said, ‘this is us,’” Davis recalls. “It was a trio — nothing had ever been more us.”
“It was already pre-ordained,” Thornton adds. “There was never any question about who our team was going to be.”
The two met in 2019 while working at Starbucks and “quickly bonded over our love for so many different things,” Davis says. “We bonded over ‘Big Brother’ and watching ‘Jeopardy!’ every single day and went from work friends to best friends.”
She met Halterman, a journalist with a background in LGBTQ+ media, through Thornton. The couple has been dating for over five years and also share a love of pop culture.
“My oldest, undying obsession is daytime soap operas,” Halterman says. “I’ve been watching ‘Days of Our Lives’ for over 30 years and I’m also a big ‘Real Housewives’ fanatic … really crappy reality TV is like nectar for me. I’m very television heavy.”
“We have a lot of overlap but also, Ava is super into horror movies and alternative music, something Mike and I don’t have a big handle on,” Thornton notes. “I also like nerdy things that they don’t really like — video games, anime, Broadway musicals — and Mike knows literally everything about everything, so we complemented each other as a team even without trying to.”
While the Tampa Tamales wasn’t the team’s first choice for a name, they say they’re happy to represent the region. Thornton and Halterman also note they were proud to compete as a couple.
“One of my biggest takeaways was how LGBTQ+-friendly it was,” Thornton says. “The combination of a gay couple and their girlfriend was the most common one — it felt like every other team had some LGBTQ+ representation.”
That includes at least one Central Florida couple, Orlando’s Alexander Pribil and Andy Hall, and others nationwide. The trio says the Tampa Tamales have made lifelong friends from the experience and that they’re looking forward to watching the competition unfold.
“It’s really become a community for the contestants,” Thornton says. “It was such a bonding experience and we’ve really become a family.”
“Pop Culture Jeopardy!” will premiere on Prime Video Dec. 4. For more information, visit Jeopardy.com/Pop-Culture.
