FARMINGTON – When Amanda Hall stepped to the podium and Johnny Gilbert announced “This is Jeopardy! Let’s meet today’s contestants,” she became jittery.

Hall, 11, of Farmington was the first one to be announced. She saw herself on the big screen television as the cameras zoomed in on her.

She was facing about 4,000 audience members at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington during the taping of the show.

Hall put up with all the primping and hot lights in early April to appear on Jeopardy!’s Kids Week.

The show airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday on ABC, Channel 8 WMTW in the Farmington area.

The hardest part came after the Jeopardy! taping was over.

Hall was sworn to secrecy contractually about the outcome.

So she has been unable to tell people how she did. Only her immediate family and those who went to the taping know.

She’s been tight-lipped about whether she earned $1,000, $2,000 or the big prize of $10,000 or more.

The sixth-grader at Cascade Brook School is among the country’s brightest 10- to 12-year-olds who earned their way on to the show.

After Hall took a test last June, she waited all summer, fall and most of the winter to see if she would be selected.

In March, the FedEx package arrived.

Now she’s waiting for the show to air.

“I’m not nervous,” Hall said. “I’m excited because I’ll finally get to the rooftop so I can shout how I did.”

Everybody has been asking her.

“I had so many people ask me and want to know and I want to tell them but I can’t,” Hall said.

“I think that all of New England will be watching me,” she said. “I want to believe that.”

Hall’s mother, Lisa Ellrich, has decided to have a small gathering of friends at the Latte Landing at the Olsen Student Center at the University of Maine in Farmington to watch it on a big screen television.

Some of her daughter’s friends don’t have cable and wouldn’t be able to watch it otherwise.

What people might not see is a commercial that Hall appeared in that was taped in front of the Jefferson Memorial.

In it she says “Hi, I’m Amanda Hall. Cheer for me on Jeopardy! right here on ABC 8 WMTW.”

Hall’s mother admits she was probably more stressed out than her daughter.

“I was trying to be calm; it was an amazing experience,” Ellrich said. “We’ll never be able to watch Jeopardy! without going back and remembering.”

Hall became an instant celebrity when she walked out of the hall with her mother. People recognized her and mobbed her wanting to take their picture with her.

“It was cool,” Hall said. “I had a lot of fun. I made some good friends.”

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