Boyertown Alum Kyle Webb To Compete Tonight on ABC's "The Chase"

by Lesley Misko

Grab your remote and get ready to cheer for Boyertown Area Senior High’s (BASH) class of 1999 alum Kyle Webb, as she competes on the TV quiz show “The Chase” tonight on ABC (channel 806 on Comcast Cable) at 10:00 PM.

Contestants compete against experts called “Chasers” and “duel with them to win,” Kyle explains. To be selected for the show, Kyle completed a written application. Months later, while she was attending a work-related conference, she received a phone call expressing interest in her.

“A co-worker knew I was waiting to hear back and joked that he had a Los Angeles area code and was going to prank call me, pretending to be from the show. That night I DID get the call and at first, I thought it was a joke,” Kyle remembers, laughing.

The next step was a series of Zoom interviews with show producers who evaluated her trivia abilities and her personality. Ultimately, they put together a “reel” that showcased her potential as a contestant. That was passed along to the executive producers who made the final selection.

The episode was filmed in Studio City, CA many months ago. Of course, Kyle knows the outcome, but gives no hints and invites fans to find out for themselves.

A Jeopardy! Champion in Training From a Young Age

Kyle shaking hands with longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek.

Growing up, Kyle was an outstanding student who “had always loved watching Jeopardy! and other quiz shows .”  Then, during high school, she joined the Academic Challenge team, a group of students who competed against other high schools to provide quick answers to questions on a large array of topics. “It was the first time I was able to use my trivia knowledge competitively in public and I became addicted quickly,” Kyle confides.

Kyle credits her family’s love of board games with helping further develop her skills at quickly recalling information. “I can remember playing Trivial Pursuit with my parents and their friends when I was as young as 6 years old,” she says. “I am lucky to have a natural talent for remembering factoids!”

A fascination with knowledge recall led Kyle to be a loyal Jeopardy! fan and nurtured her dream to compete on the show. But making that dream a reality proved challenging: Kyle auditioned for Jeopardy! six times over an 11- year span! She finally appeared on the show in January 2016 and emerged as a three-day champion with over $40,000 in winnings.

Kyle recalls, “I was winning going into Final Jeopardy on my fourth night but was tripped up by an ancient history question and lost. It was about the Battle of Thermopylae.” She confesses that remembering historical details is her weakness: “They just don’t stick in my brain as well as other subjects.”

Prior to appearing on Jeopardy! Kyle competed on VH-1’s short-lived quiz show “World Series of Pop Culture” in 2007. However, Kyle acknowledges that she was “extremely nervous” about Jeopardy! because it was “the realization of a near lifelong dream.” She felt “immense pressure” to do well and practiced in advance with flashcards she made of questions in typical categories used on the show. “Once the game started,” however, Kyle says, “I was able to find my zone and somehow forget the cameras.”

That comfort zone did not last while it was Kyle’s turn to be interviewed by Alex Trebek. “I felt like a deer caught in headlights, although people said they couldn’t tell. When I watch those episodes back, I don’t seem like myself at all.”

After her Jeopardy! appearance, Kyle stayed in touch with other former contestants through the show’s alumni community. It was there she learned about “The Chase.”

A Scientist Who Loves Books

When not appearing as a contestant on tv game shows, Kyle (front left) works as a clinical pathologist.

When not competing on quiz shows, Kyle is a clinical pathologist for ANTECH Diagnostics, a national veterinary diagnostics laboratory under the Mars Candy Petcare umbrella. Her path to find her career was as challenging as her path to getting on quiz shows.

“I started at the University of Delaware as a computer science major,” Kyle recalls, “but neither the university nor my major were a good fit, so I dropped out after only one semester. I struggled for a long time to find something that suited me and ended up working various odd jobs for about five years before finally returning to college as a commuter student at Kutztown University. I worked in banking, data entry, and retail. Nothing kept me interested until I happened to get a job as a full-time veterinary receptionist at Limerick Veterinary Hospital."

“Filming game shows is just plain fun,” Kyle says, “and it doesn’t hurt that I can use one of my natural talents to try to make some extra money."

Kutztown and the work at the animal hospital turned out to be a winning combination: in 2008 Kyle graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Biology. She points out that her science degree was ironic because while a BASH student she “always much preferred the humanities to the sciences.” Kyle describes herself as “an avid reader from a very young age who was a big fan of any class that required reading and writing, as opposed to ‘doing’.”

Subsequently, while attending veterinary school at the University of Florida, Kyle “fell in love with a niche discipline known as clinical pathology” and completed a residency at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. She passed her Boards for veterinary clinical pathology in 2015.

While attending graduate school, Kyle also met her husband, Chris, who was in law school. She describes Chris as a “stay-at-home dad” who allows her freedom with her career she “would not otherwise have.” He is also her most enthusiastic quiz show supporter, even when she must travel across the country to film appearances!

Pressing Her Luck as a Future Contestant

We are likely to see Kyle competing on quiz shows long beyond “The Chase.” Indeed, she is excited that her Chase episode is finally airing because that means she can begin the countdown clock to applying for her next show. (Most shows will not accept your application if you’ve appeared on another show during the last 12-18 months.)

“Filming game shows is just plain fun,” Kyle says, “and it doesn’t hurt that I can use one of my natural talents to try to make some extra money. They recently revived Press Your Luck as a primetime show, hosted by Elizabeth Banks. It was my favorite game show to watch on sick days as a kid, so I think that will be the next show I try for.”

Are expertise in trivia and the desire to appear on quiz shows traits that can be inherited? Speaking about her young daughter, Kyle offers, “My personal parenting mantra is ‘parent the child you have, not the child you wish you had.’ So, if she is at all interested, I will be her biggest supporter and fan! If it’s not her thing, I’ll admit I’d be a little sad, but she’s her own person, a fact she has already made abundantly clear, so I will encourage her to tackle whatever challenges interest her!”

Editor’s Note: As a high school English teacher for 35 years, students often asked, “Why do we have to read this?” Somewhere along the line I began answering by saying, “Because you could be on Jeopardy! one day and get rich because you know this.” So it is with great pleasure that I share Kyle’s final comment: “I actually thought of you during my time on Jeopardy! when I correctly answered a question about the novel, The Great Gatsby – a book I first read in your class! J”

Kyle, you were an awesome Advanced Placement English student, and you just made my day! I’ll be cheering for you.

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• FLASHBACK: Senior Spotlight: Brenda Dunkleberger The BASH class of '75 secretary was active in a range of school activities and passed away several years ago.
• Boyertown Forward, a Community Group, Encourages Dialogue with School Board Candidates Local education advocacy group Boyertown Forward invites community to meet school board candidates on April 26, discuss education concerns.