Stuart gets ‘Scrambled up’
Usually, Cedar Shoals High School English Department Chair Tara Stuart is unscrambling her students’ essays, but on Feb. 24 she set aside her grading pen to be a contestant on the televised game show “Scrambled Up”.
Stuart saw an advertisement for auditions for “Scrambled Up”, a game show hosted by Michael Yo where contestants unscrambled words in four game rounds for the chance to win a $10,000 prize.
“I’m a gamer. I love games and I love to watch game shows, so I was like, ‘I’ll just throw my name in the hat and see what happens,’” Stuart said. “I heard from someone a little while later, and they set up a Zoom call and played the game (Scrambled Up) with me while recording me so that the producers could see how I responded.”
Stuart’s episode was filmed on Sept. 9, 2025 in Atlanta. She and other contestants went through some preparation before they played the game while on film.
“They walk you through how the game works, walk you through the rules, and then you practice play a little bit. We also went and watched some live tapings of other people, so once you get up there, you’re not just doing it blind. You have some context for what’s going to happen,” Stuart said. “They put us through hair, makeup, wardrobe, and I got to be a live audience for other people. It was really fun.”
“Scrambled Up” has four game rounds with increasing stakes. In the first and second round, contestants receive clues to unscramble the scrambled word. In the third round, known as the speed scramble round, contestants are not given clues but a category that the scrambled word is in. They are given two minutes and 30 seconds, and the contestant who unscrambles the most words will move on to the fourth round: the Ultimate Scramble. In the Ultimate Scramble, contestants have to unscramble three phrases in 60 seconds to win $10,000.
Stuart made it to the Ultimate Scramble and had the $10,000 grand prize right in her reach, but she wasn’t able to unscramble all three clues in time.
“I didn’t win in the end, but I was still super proud of how I did,” Stuart said. “The first word took me 40 seconds to get, so I had 20 seconds left to get the other two. I didn’t ever get the second one and I was so mad.”
After filming the episode, Stuart was allowed to tell friends and family about her appearance on the show, but not the end result. To celebrate her episode airing on Feb. 24, she held a watch party for students the next morning..
“They were excited and it was really cute. They were watching and clapping when I got answers right. I told them, ‘If you know what it is, shout it out. I want to see if you get it before I did.’ So it was interactive and fun. It’s just a weird thing that I did, and it was fun to share it with my students,” Stuart said.
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“Senior Emma Van Cantfort attended Stuart’s watch party and was thrilled to see her English teacher on television.
“It was really nice to see so many people that were able to come and watch, including teachers,” Van Cantfort said. “It was really cool seeing how quickly (Stuart) was answering questions, and then her wrestler name, we actually had a class conversation about that. It was also really fun to see that she shouted out Cedar.”
Senior Christopher Koch loved seeing how smart Stuart was as she advanced through the rounds.
“She was getting it faster than even anyone at the watch party,” Koch said. “She absolutely killed it.”
