I was! After taking the online test, I apparently did well enough that I was picked for an audition. I had mine around May 2017 in Nashville. We took another test and then we were called up in groups of 3 to play the game. It's like a mini version of the show--you get a signalling device and you get to ring in and answer questions, then they do an interview segment. (When you fill out your paperwork for the audition, you're asked to put down a few anecdotes.) Mine was about the many (many) times I've been attacked by animals--"...enough not to take it personally." Then it's over.
You're then in the contestant pool for 18 months. My 18 months came to an end last November, so I figured, well, I'll just have to audition again. (Some people audition multiple times before making it on the show.) In fact, I had just registered to take the online test again when I got the call in late February. After that, I had two weeks before I flew to Los Angeles--two weeks that I spent watching so many old episodes, practicing playing, and trying to cram facts into my head. In that two weeks, Alex's diagnosis was announced to the world.
They film 5 shows a day and the process of being picked for each one is random. So we got to the green room and they were like, "This is James, he's the returning champion--do you want to tell them how many games you've won?" Obviously, it was a staggering number but it was pretty abstract for most of us, I think, until we saw it on TV--his episodes hadn't begun airing yet. Then we went through legal stuff, makeup, and rehearsals before we started filming. I was finally picked for the fourth game of the day, Thursday's game. It went pretty well, I think. I was hindered by never finding any Double Jeopardys, so I wasn't able to build my money like my opponents.
When we got to the category reveal for Final Jeopardy, I spent a few minutes doing calculations before I was like, "This is your category, you're gonna know this, bet everything." And I did and I did. One of my opponents did the same, though, and he had more money than me, so he won.
As for Alex, you don't really spend much time with him--after the quiz show scandals of the 50s, TV game shows are very regulated, so he doesn't interact with us much to avoid any accusations of bias. Basically, the interaction you see on TV is it. But here he is yelling at me during the interview segment. :)