Catherine Hardee is headed back to the national trivia stage

The Kinston native and former “Jeopardy!” champion will appear on “Trivial Pursuit,” the television game show hosted by LeVar Burton. The episode, titled “On Thin Ice,” is listed by The CW as Season 2, Episode 219 and is scheduled to air Thursday at 9 p.m.

For Hardee, the appearance marks another chapter in a game-show résumé that already includes “Jeopardy!” and “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.”

“It was super fun,” Hardee said. “It was neat to do a completely different type of show that takes place in a different place, and to get back into it after a number of years.”

Hardee said the opportunity came after casting producers reached out to her.

Alex Trebek and Catherine Hardee of the set of the game show “Jeopardy” in

“I got a text from a casting producer that had contacted me previously about a different show that I didn’t end up getting on,” Hardee said. “They reached out to see if I would be interested in doing it, so I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ I put my application in, and it went from there.”

Hardee first gained national attention in 2014, when she appeared on “Jeopardy!” and became a four-time champion. Her original run ended with $95,201 in winnings. She later returned for the show’s 2015 Tournament of Champions, where she won her quarterfinal match before being eliminated in the semifinals.

A graduate of Liberty University, Hardee studied history and competed with the university’s Quiz Bowl team. Liberty University reported before her first “Jeopardy!” appearance that Hardee had been a three-time Quiz Bowl MVP and had ranked among the top players in a five-state Mid-Atlantic region during her time with the team.

Her game-show career continued in 2019, when she appeared on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and won $5,000.

Hardee in London, England where the game show “Trivial Pursuit” was filmed.

But even with that experience, Hardee said “Trivial Pursuit” presented a different kind of challenge.

“In some ways, it was more difficult,” Hardee said. “I felt like it was harder to win and be successful than either of those other shows.”

Hardee said “Jeopardy!” gives contestants more opportunities to build their score, with 30 clues in each of the first two rounds. On “Trivial Pursuit,” she said, there are fewer chances to recover from a missed question.

“There are only 18 total questions in the first round,” Hardee said. “Every question matters. In some ways, it was genuinely harder than ‘Jeopardy!’”

“Trivial Pursuit” is based on the long-running board game and features contestants answering questions across the game’s classic categories. The CW’s episode description says contestants compete for a chance to win $20,000.

To prepare, Hardee went straight to the source.

“I bought a Trivial Pursuit game, and I worked through the questions,” Hardee said.

She said the point was not only to study facts, but to understand how the questions were written.

“A lot of doing game shows is seeing how questions are written,” Hardee said. “Getting a feel for the cadence and the way the questions are written, that’s what I was trying to do with ‘Trivial Pursuit.’ I was specifically preparing for ‘Trivial Pursuit.’”

Hardee also had the chance to meet Burton, known to generations of viewers for “Reading Rainbow” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

“He was so lovely,” Hardee said. “He was so kind and genuinely interested in the contestants, and just a really awesome professional.”

Hardee said Burton’s care for education stood out during taping.

“You could tell where his heart was, especially when he got to talking to teachers,” Hardee said. “You could tell how much teachers and education meant to him personally. He shared anecdotes about his mom being a teacher, so that was really neat.”

She also said Burton seemed moved by how much he meant to contestants who grew up watching him.

“You could tell that it meant a lot to him how many of the contestants had idolized him growing up, either from ‘Reading Rainbow’ or from ‘Star Trek,’” Hardee said. “Not in an egotistical way, but genuinely touched that he meant something to so many people.”

Hardee’s Kinston roots have long been part of her public game-show story. In a 2018 Neuse News column, she wrote about being born and raised in Kinston, returning home after college and graduate school, and using her “Jeopardy!” winnings to buy a house.

That column also recalled one of the lighter moments from her time on “Jeopardy!” — host Alex Trebek’s pronunciation of Kinston as “Kingston,” a mistake that did not go unnoticed locally.

Hardee said the moment still comes up years later.

“It does,” Hardee said. “I still have people talk about it. It struck a nerve.”

When she returned for the Tournament of Champions, she had the chance to correct him.

“I was so glad that I had the chance to go back and defend Kinston’s honor,” Hardee said. “If for no other reason, I was glad I got on the Tournament of Champions so I could do that.”

After appearances on “Jeopardy!,” “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and now “Trivial Pursuit,” Hardee said she is still open to more game shows.

“Oh, all of them,” Hardee said. “If you will give me a chance to show up and answer questions, and you’ll give me money, I’m there.”

One show still stands out.

“I would love to do ‘Wheel of Fortune,’” Hardee said. “I’ve loved ‘Wheel of Fortune’ since I was a little kid.”

For now, Hardee’s latest appearance gives Kinston another reason to tune in — and another chance to see one of its own test her knowledge on a national stage.