Ken Jennings
Encyclopedia
Kenneth Wayne "Ken" Jennings III (born May 23, 1974) is an American
game show contestant and author. Jennings is noted for holding the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S.
syndicated
game show
Jeopardy!
and as being the all-time leading money winner on American game shows. In 2004, Jennings won 74 Jeopardy! games before he was defeated by challenger Nancy Zerg on his 75th appearance. His total earnings on Jeopardy! are $3,172,700, consisting of $2,520,700 over his 74 wins, a $2,000 second-place prize in his 75th appearance, a $500,000 second-place prize in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, as well as half of a $300,000 prize in the IBM Challenge.
During his first run of Jeopardy! appearances, Jennings earned the record for the highest American game show winnings. His total was surpassed by Brad Rutter
, who defeated Jennings in the finals of the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions (first aired on May 25, 2005), adding $2,000,000 to Rutter's existing Jeopardy! winnings. Jennings regained the record after appearing on several other game shows, culminating in an appearance on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
(first aired on October 10, 2008), though Rutter retains the Jeopardy! record.
After his success on Jeopardy!, Jennings wrote of his experience and explored American trivia
history and culture in Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs, published in 2006.
, Jennings grew up in Seoul
, South Korea
(1981–1992) and Singapore
(1992–1996), where his father worked for an international law
firm and then as Asia Pacific Division Counsel of Oracle Corporation
. He watched Jeopardy! on American Forces Network
television while growing up.
Jennings graduated with a degree
in Computer Science
and English
at Brigham Young University
, where he played on the school's quizbowl
team for three and a half years. He graduated from Seoul Foreign School
where he completed an International Baccalaureate diploma, and achieved honors at Brigham Young. Jennings attended the University of Washington
during his freshman year.
Jennings is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As reported by The Salt Lake Tribune
and other sources, Jennings is a member of the Democratic Party
.
Now residing just outside Seattle, Washington
, Jennings identifies himself as an avid comic book
and movie
buff with a website listing his top 4,000 favorite movies. He also writes questions for, edits the literature
and mythology
categories of questions of, and is otherwise active in the National Academic Quiz Tournaments
(NAQT), a quiz bowl organization; in particular, he moderated (i.e., read questions) at the 2005, 2006, and 2009 NAQT National High School Tournaments in Chicago
.
During his Jeopardy!
winning streak, Jennings was a software engineer
for CHG Healthcare, a healthcare-placement firm in Holladay, Utah
.http://content.chghealthcare.com/chg/ext_press_releases/CHG_Ribbon_Cutting_06_07.pdf
Before his Jeopardy! appearance, Jennings was a member of BYU's Quiz Bowl Team. Jennings' run began during Jeopardy!' s 20th season with the episode aired on Wednesday, June 2, 2004, in which he unseated two-time returning champion Jerry Harvey, and continued into season 21. Jennings' run was interrupted by the 2004 Kids' Week, the Tournament of Champions
(aired from September 20, 2004 through October 1, 2004), and the College Championship
(aired from November 10, 2004 through November 23, 2004). He did not participate in the Tournament of Champions, as invitations are only extended to champions who have already been defeated (with the exception of the winner(s) of the College Championship), which Jennings had not yet been.
The Final Jeopardy! category was Business & Industry, and the answer was "Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees
work only four months a year". Zerg responded correctly with "What is H&R Block
?" and wagered $4,401 of her $10,000, giving her a $1 lead over Jennings with his response still to be revealed. Jennings incorrectly responded with "What is FedEx
?", and lost the game with a final score of $8,799 after his $5,601 wager was deducted from his score. He was awarded $2,000 for his second place finish, which gave him a final total of $2,522,700 for his run on Jeopardy!. Zerg, whom Jennings called a "formidable opponent," finished in third place on the next show.
Jennings' 75 matches took place over a span of 182 calendar days, which included stoppages for the show's summer break, one Kids Week series of episodes, the 2004 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions
, and the 2004 Jeopardy! College Championship
.
On December 1, 2004, the day after his defeat, Jeopardy! broke with tradition by having Jennings make a "guest appearance" at the start of the broadcast, during which host Alex Trebek
acknowledged his success and enumerated the various game show records he had broken.
Jennings appeared in The Guinness Book of World Records under "Most cash won on a game show."
TV National People Meter, Jeopardy!' s ratings were 22% higher during Jennings' run than they were during the same period the previous year. For several weeks of the winnings streak, Jeopardy! was ranked as TV's highest-rated syndicated program. By the end of Jeopardy!' s 20th season several weeks later, the show had surpassed Wheel of Fortune in the ratings (the first time any show had displaced Wheel as the highest-rated syndicated television show since 1984), but Wheel, which is usually paired with Jeopardy! in programming, also benefited from Jennings' streak.
. There Jennings revealed that he had failed to qualify for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
, once hosted by Regis Philbin
. During that guest appearance, Jennings said, "Jeopardy! is a man's game... it's not like Millionaire."
Jennings appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to present Letterman
's "Top Ten List" (Top ten ways to irritate Alex Trebek). He appeared again on the program on the night his final show was televised, in addition to interview segments airing that night on local late evening news programming and on Nightline. Barbara Walters
selected Jennings as one of the "Ten Most Fascinating People of 2004" for her twelfth annual ABC News
special, which aired on December 8, 2004. While on his media tour following his final game, Jennings taped a segment for Sesame Street
. TV Guide
featured a segment of "The Top Ten TV Moments of 2004", in which Ken Jennings' loss placed third. On December 1, 2004, A&E
aired an episode of Biography on Jennings and other Jeopardy! notables, including Frank Spangenberg
and Eddie Timanus
.
. It featured Tournament of Champions, College Championship, and Teen Tournament winners from the show's 21-year run, as well as over 100 five-time champions. Jeopardy!' s executive producer, Harry Friedman, explained:
The field totaled 145 players including Jennings, who, unlike the other competitors, was automatically placed in the finals. The Ultimate Tournament of Champions offered substantial cash prizes; with a grand prize of $2,000,000 to the winner, $500,000 for the first runner-up, and $250,000 for the second runner-up. Guaranteed prize money was offered to all contestants.
In the final round of the Ultimate Tournament, Brad Rutter
decisively defeated Jennings and Jerome Vered
, with respective final scores of $62,000, $34,599, and $20,600. Jennings won the $500,000 prize for second place, but as a result of the Ultimate Tournament, Rutter temporarily displaced him as the highest overall winner of money on a game show. Jennings has said he is still happy with his second-place finish. (Jennings and Rutter returned to Jeopardy! in February 2011 to challenge IBM's Watson computer.)
ten percent to his church, donate to public television and National Public Radio, go on a trip to Europe, and invest the rest for his family. Jeopardy! contestants typically receive their winnings approximately 120 days after their last game airs in the form of a check. Taking advantage of the notoriety that Jennings's losing Final Jeopardy! answer afforded, H&R Block offered Jennings free tax planning and financial services for the rest of his life. H&R Block senior vice president David Byers estimated that Jennings would owe approximately $1.04 million in taxes on his winnings.
In 2004 Democratic politicians Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid
unsuccessfully asked Jennings to run for the United States Senate
from Utah. Jennings observed that "That was when I realized the Democratic Party was f@#$ed in '04
."
Jennings has written three books. Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs (2006, Villard
, ISBN 1-4000-6445-7, trade paperback ISBN 0-8129-7499-9) details his experiences on Jeopardy! and his research into trivia culture conducted after the completion of his run. Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days, a hardcover book (2008, Villard, ISBN 0-345-59997-2), is a compilation of trivia questions—with 3 categories and about 20 questions per day of the year. Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks (2011, Scribner
, ISBN 1-439-16717-6) explores the world of map and geography enthusiasts.
Jennings also had a column in Mental Floss
magazine called "Six Degrees of Ken Jennings", in which readers submit two wildly different things and he has to connect them in exactly six moves, much in the same vein as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
game. The column ran from November 2005; to the September–October 2010 issue.
According to Variety.com
, Jennings and television producer Michael Davies
teamed up as executive producers on a new game show format for Comedy Central
. According to Comedy Central execs, it was planned that Jennings would co-host and participate. The series was planned to premiere late in 2005 or in the first quarter of 2006; as of April 2006, development had stalled, and the show's future remained uncertain. Jennings explained on his website that "Stephen Colbert's show was doing so well in its post-Daily Show
spot that Comedy Central decided they weren't in the market for a quiz show anymore." However, as of mid-2006, he was still shopping a potential game show titled, Ken Jennings vs. the Rest of the World.
Jennings appeared on The Colbert Report on September 14, 2006. During the interview, Colbert
discussed Jennings's book, Brainiac, and mocked him not knowing the number of pages the book contained. After Colbert coined a word to describe intellectual nerdiness, "poindexterity", Jennings was going back and forth of what is the correct noun for "poindexter." Jennings noted, as he had done earlier that day on NPR's Talk of the Nation
, that since his streak, people "seem to have an extra-hard trivia question" in case they run into him.
He also appeared twice on NPR
's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
program. In his Feb. 25, 2006 appearance on the "Not My Job" segment, he answered all three questions correctly, winning for a listener Carl Kasell
's voice on that person's answering machine. Jennings stated, "This is, this is the proudest moment of my game show life."
faith prohibits gambling.) He left the show with $714.29, his share of a $35,000 prize shared among 49 Mob members. Jennings returned to the show for a special "Last Man Standing" episode aired on February 9, 2007. He was eliminated on the final question, which asked which of the three options had been married the most times; he answered King Henry VIII
, while the correct answer was Larry King
. This episode was the first time Jennings had a chance at a rematch against rival Brad Rutter
, who was also part of the mob and was eliminated before Jennings.
In 2007, Jennings was invited to be a contestant on the game show Grand Slam hosted by Dennis Miller
and Amanda Byram
, also a Sony Pictures production. The show debuted on GSN on August 4, 2007, and featured sixteen former game-show winners in a single-elimination tournament. Jennings, seeded second behind Brad Rutter, won the tournament and became the 2007 Grand Slam Champion after defeating Ogi Ogas
(a second-round winner against Rutter) in the finals. He earned $100,000 for his victory.
Jennings was a contestant on an episode of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
that aired on October 10, 2008, which held the possibility of exceeding fellow Jeopardy! winner Brad Rutter
's total game show winnings. After winning $500,000, enough to surpass Rutter's total, Jennings chose not to attempt the final $1,000,000 question, which would have deducted $475,000 from his winnings if he missed it. As is customary on the show, Jennings was then shown the question to see what would have happened, and he provided the correct answer. Had he risked his winnings and correctly answered the question, he would have become the show's second $1,000,000 winner.
As of October 31, 2008, Ken is appearing on GSN on Fridays for the trivia game Stump the Master
. Home viewers send questions via the GSN website. Four callers are put on hold and Ken selects from one of the categories. The category for the caller he picked comes on the line and reads the question. If Ken does not answer or is incorrect, the caller wins $1,000 or more. Anytime Ken is right, the jackpot is increased by $1,000. All callers are given a small prize, whether or not they participated on the air themselves.
Jennings also appeared on two other Sony Pictures Television game shows, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
, as a frequent expert for the lifeline "Ask the Expert" (his appearances were after Sony acquired Millionaire packager 2waytraffic
in 2008), and also taped a pilot for the proposed 2009 CBS revival of Sony's The $25,000 Pyramid
.
written by Michael Starr was published claiming that Jennings had been critical of Jeopardy! on his blog. Citing statements that Jennings wrote on it, Starr's article focuses on Jennings's "criticism" of the show and host Alex Trebek
.
Jennings responded on his own personal blog (at http://ken-jennings.com/blog/?p=83), saying, "...there’s no way I was genuinely calling for angry bees and ventriloquist’s dummies to be added to the Jeopardy! format. It’s a humor piece, and one which gets its laughs from the outrageous non sequiturs it proposes, not the ripeness of its target for criticism." Jennings had already posted a more serious comment defending Trebek that remains on his website.
Entertainment Weekly
put his performance on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Answer: A software engineer from Utah, he dominated the quizfest for a record 74 shows in 2004, amassing $2,520,700. Question: Who is Ken Jennings?"
division of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) in 2006. In his first time competing, Jennings placed 37th overall. He also served as the award's presenter, becoming the first contestant to present an award to himself. He has not competed in the tournament since.
's Watson
facing off against Jennings and Rutter in two matches played over three days. The winner of the competition was Watson, winning $1 million for two charities, while Ken Jennings took second place with Brad Rutter falling in a close third, receiving $300,000 and $200,000, respectively. Jennings and Rutter each pledged to donate half of their winnings to charity.
This was the first ever man-versus-machine competition in Jeopardy!' s history. At the end of the first episode, in which only the first match's Jeopardy! Round was aired, Rutter was tied with Watson at $5,000, while Jennings was in third with $2,000. After the second episode in which the first game was completed, Jennings remained at third with $4,800 while Rutter at second had $10,400. The competition ended with Watson in clear first with $77,147, Jennings with $24,000, and Rutter with $21,600. Underneath his response during the Final Jeopardy! Round, Jennings wrote on his screen "I for one welcome our new computer overlords", an allusion to an oft-repeated line from The Simpsons episode "Deep Space Homer
".
Jennings wrote about his experience playing against Watson
for the online magazine Slate
.
He also tied the following records:
The following records, having been set by Ken Jennings, have now been broken by others:
Jennings was not eligible for the 2006 Tournament of Champions. By accepting a bye into the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, Jennings was guaranteed $250,000. This bye also required that he give up his right to play in the 2006 Tournament of Champions. Rutter's total of $3,255,102 includes $55,102 in his five days and $3,000,000 in special tournament play, but does not include his two Chevrolet Camaro
s he won on the game.
to promote its discontinued Encarta
encyclopedia software. He is also engaged in speaking deals through the Massachusetts-based speakers agency, American Program Bureau. Cingular Wireless
(now AT&T) featured Jennings in commercials portraying Jennings as having lots of "friends and family" (coming out of the woodwork, because he is now "stinking rich") in 2005.
University Games produced a Can You Beat Ken? board game, in which players vie against each other and Jennings in an attempt to earn $2.6 million first. Each question in the game was asked to Jennings, and his answers are recorded on the cards.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
game show contestant and author. Jennings is noted for holding the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
and as being the all-time leading money winner on American game shows. In 2004, Jennings won 74 Jeopardy! games before he was defeated by challenger Nancy Zerg on his 75th appearance. His total earnings on Jeopardy! are $3,172,700, consisting of $2,520,700 over his 74 wins, a $2,000 second-place prize in his 75th appearance, a $500,000 second-place prize in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, as well as half of a $300,000 prize in the IBM Challenge.
During his first run of Jeopardy! appearances, Jennings earned the record for the highest American game show winnings. His total was surpassed by Brad Rutter
Brad Rutter
Bradford Gates "Brad" Rutter is the biggest all-time money winner on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and the second biggest all-time money winner on a game show....
, who defeated Jennings in the finals of the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions (first aired on May 25, 2005), adding $2,000,000 to Rutter's existing Jeopardy! winnings. Jennings regained the record after appearing on several other game shows, culminating in an appearance on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (U.S. game show)
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? is an American quiz game show on Fox. It is produced by Mark Burnett and is hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. The show premiered as a three-day special which began on February 27, 2007 with the first two shows each a half-hour in length...
(first aired on October 10, 2008), though Rutter retains the Jeopardy! record.
After his success on Jeopardy!, Jennings wrote of his experience and explored American trivia
Trivia
The trivia are the three lower Artes Liberales, i.e. grammar, rhetoric and logic. These were the topics of basic education, foundational to the quadrivia of higher education, and hence the material of basic education, of interest only to undergraduates...
history and culture in Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs, published in 2006.
Early life
Born in Edmonds, WashingtonEdmonds, Washington
Edmonds is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. Edmonds has a view of Puget Sound and both the Olympic Mountains and Cascade Range. The third most populous city in Snohomish County after Everett and Marysville, the population was 39,709 according to the 2010 census...
, Jennings grew up in Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
(1981–1992) and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
(1992–1996), where his father worked for an international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
firm and then as Asia Pacific Division Counsel of Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
. He watched Jeopardy! on American Forces Network
American Forces Network
The American Forces Network is the brand name used by the United States Armed Forces American Forces Radio and Television Service for its entertainment and command internal information networks worldwide...
television while growing up.
Jennings graduated with a degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
in Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
and English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
at Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
, where he played on the school's quizbowl
Quizbowl
Quiz bowl is a family of games of questions and answers on all topics of human knowledge that is commonly played by students enrolled in high school or college, although some participants begin in middle or even elementary school...
team for three and a half years. He graduated from Seoul Foreign School
Seoul Foreign School
Athletic Conference APAC Colors RedBlack Mascot The Crusaders Homepage Located in Seoul, South Korea, the Seoul Foreign School is a K-12 college preparatory school founded in 1912 by Christian missionaries to Korea...
where he completed an International Baccalaureate diploma, and achieved honors at Brigham Young. Jennings attended the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
during his freshman year.
Family and personal life
He and his wife Mindy (née Boam) have a son, Dylan, born in 2003, and a daughter, Caitlin, born in 2006.Jennings is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As reported by The Salt Lake Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune is the largest-circulated daily newspaper in the U.S. city of Salt Lake City. It is distributed by Newspaper Agency Corporation, which also distributes the Deseret News. The Tribune — or "Trib," as it is locally known — is currently owned by the Denver-based MediaNews Group....
and other sources, Jennings is a member of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
.
Now residing just outside Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, Jennings identifies himself as an avid comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
and movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
buff with a website listing his top 4,000 favorite movies. He also writes questions for, edits the literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
categories of questions of, and is otherwise active in the National Academic Quiz Tournaments
National Academic Quiz Tournaments
National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC is a question-writing and quizbowl organizing company founded by former players in 1996. It is unique among U.S. quiz organizations for supplying questions and hosting championships at the middle school, high school, and college levels.The format is a set...
(NAQT), a quiz bowl organization; in particular, he moderated (i.e., read questions) at the 2005, 2006, and 2009 NAQT National High School Tournaments in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
During his Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
winning streak, Jennings was a software engineer
Software engineer
A software engineer is an engineer who applies the principles of software engineering to the design, development, testing, and evaluation of the software and systems that make computers or anything containing software, such as computer chips, work.- Overview :...
for CHG Healthcare, a healthcare-placement firm in Holladay, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
.http://content.chghealthcare.com/chg/ext_press_releases/CHG_Ribbon_Cutting_06_07.pdf
Streak on Jeopardy!
Before 2003, Jeopardy! contestants were limited to five consecutive games. At the beginning of the show's twentieth season (in 2003), the rules were changed to allow contestants to remain on the show as long as they continued to win. After this rule change, and until Jennings' run, the record winning streak was set by Tom Walsh, who won $186,900 in eight games in January 2004.Before his Jeopardy! appearance, Jennings was a member of BYU's Quiz Bowl Team. Jennings' run began during Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions
The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions is an annual tournament featuring the longest-running champions from the past season or seasons of the TV quiz show Jeopardy! The tournament began in the show's first season in 1964 during Art Fleming's tenure as host, and continued into the Alex Trebek era of...
(aired from September 20, 2004 through October 1, 2004), and the College Championship
Jeopardy! College Championship
The Jeopardy! College Championship is one of the traditional tournaments held each season on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Contestants in this tournament are full-time undergraduate college students with no prior degrees...
(aired from November 10, 2004 through November 23, 2004). He did not participate in the Tournament of Champions, as invitations are only extended to champions who have already been defeated (with the exception of the winner(s) of the College Championship), which Jennings had not yet been.
End of the streak
On November 30, 2004, Jennings' reign as Jeopardy! champion ended when he lost his seventy-fifth game to challenger Nancy Zerg. Jennings responded incorrectly to both Double Jeopardy! Daily Doubles, causing him to lose a combined $10,200 ($5,400 and $4,800, respectively) and leaving him with $14,400 at the end of the round. As a result, for only the tenth time in 75 games, Jennings did not have an insurmountable lead going into the Final Jeopardy! round. Only Jennings and Zerg, who ended Double Jeopardy! with $10,000, were able to play Final Jeopardy! as third-place contestant David Hankins failed to finish with a positive score after Double Jeopardy!.The Final Jeopardy! category was Business & Industry, and the answer was "Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees
White-collar worker
The term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work, in contrast with a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor...
work only four months a year". Zerg responded correctly with "What is H&R Block
H&R Block
H&R Block is a tax preparation company in the United States, claiming more than 22 million customers worldwide, with offices in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. The Kansas City-based company also offers banking, personal finance and business consulting services.Founded in 1955 by brothers...
?" and wagered $4,401 of her $10,000, giving her a $1 lead over Jennings with his response still to be revealed. Jennings incorrectly responded with "What is FedEx
FedEx
FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...
?", and lost the game with a final score of $8,799 after his $5,601 wager was deducted from his score. He was awarded $2,000 for his second place finish, which gave him a final total of $2,522,700 for his run on Jeopardy!. Zerg, whom Jennings called a "formidable opponent," finished in third place on the next show.
Jennings' 75 matches took place over a span of 182 calendar days, which included stoppages for the show's summer break, one Kids Week series of episodes, the 2004 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions
Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions
The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions is an annual tournament featuring the longest-running champions from the past season or seasons of the TV quiz show Jeopardy! The tournament began in the show's first season in 1964 during Art Fleming's tenure as host, and continued into the Alex Trebek era of...
, and the 2004 Jeopardy! College Championship
Jeopardy! College Championship
The Jeopardy! College Championship is one of the traditional tournaments held each season on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Contestants in this tournament are full-time undergraduate college students with no prior degrees...
.
Impact of the streak on Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! implemented some backstage changes during Jennings' run. Normally, players only get a short time to practice, but more rehearsal time was added so that the new players could get comfortable with the buzzers. Additionally, the person who managed the buzzer system was changed.On December 1, 2004, the day after his defeat, Jeopardy! broke with tradition by having Jennings make a "guest appearance" at the start of the broadcast, during which host Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek
George Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...
acknowledged his success and enumerated the various game show records he had broken.
Jennings appeared in The Guinness Book of World Records under "Most cash won on a game show."
Ratings impact
According to the NielsenNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
TV National People Meter, Jeopardy!
Media appearances and coverage during the streak
Jennings has received a good deal of American media coverage. After his 38th win on Jeopardy!, during the summer break between tapings, Jennings made a guest appearance on Live with Regis and KellyLive with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
. There Jennings revealed that he had failed to qualify for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television quiz show which offers a maximum prize of $1,000,000 for correctly answering 14 consecutive multiple-choice questions of random difficulty. Until 2010, the format required contestants to correctly answer 15 consecutive questions of increasing...
, once hosted by Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin is an American media personality, actor and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Philbin is often called "the hardest working man in show business" and holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera...
. During that guest appearance, Jennings said, "Jeopardy! is a man's game... it's not like Millionaire."
Jennings appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to present Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
's "Top Ten List" (Top ten ways to irritate Alex Trebek). He appeared again on the program on the night his final show was televised, in addition to interview segments airing that night on local late evening news programming and on Nightline. Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters
Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...
selected Jennings as one of the "Ten Most Fascinating People of 2004" for her twelfth annual ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
special, which aired on December 8, 2004. While on his media tour following his final game, Jennings taped a segment for Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
. TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
featured a segment of "The Top Ten TV Moments of 2004", in which Ken Jennings' loss placed third. On December 1, 2004, A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
aired an episode of Biography on Jennings and other Jeopardy! notables, including Frank Spangenberg
Frank Spangenberg
Lieutenant Frank Spangenberg garnered fame in 1990 when he set the five-day cumulative winnings record on the game show Jeopardy!, becoming the first person to win more than $100,000 in five days on the show...
and Eddie Timanus
Eddie Timanus
Eddie Timanus is a Jeopardy! champion and USA Today sportswriter who grew up in Reston, Virginia, then graduated from Wake Forest University. He met his wife through a Yahoo! Groups discussion group on game shows; the couple now has a son...
.
Ultimate Tournament of Champions
On December 28, 2004, Sony announced a 15-week, 75-show Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of ChampionsJeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions
The Ultimate Tournament of Champions was a special fifteen-week single-elimination tournament that aired during the twenty-first season of the syndicated game show Jeopardy! that began airing on February 9, 2005 and concluded on May 25, 2005, covering 76 shows in all...
. It featured Tournament of Champions, College Championship, and Teen Tournament winners from the show's 21-year run, as well as over 100 five-time champions. Jeopardy!
- "The 2003 rule change, which allows Jeopardy! players to keep playing until they're defeated, raised the question about how other five-time champions might have played under this rule. This tournament is an opportunity to give those past champions another chance to shine."
The field totaled 145 players including Jennings, who, unlike the other competitors, was automatically placed in the finals. The Ultimate Tournament of Champions offered substantial cash prizes; with a grand prize of $2,000,000 to the winner, $500,000 for the first runner-up, and $250,000 for the second runner-up. Guaranteed prize money was offered to all contestants.
In the final round of the Ultimate Tournament, Brad Rutter
Brad Rutter
Bradford Gates "Brad" Rutter is the biggest all-time money winner on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and the second biggest all-time money winner on a game show....
decisively defeated Jennings and Jerome Vered
Jerome Vered
Jerome Vered is a Studio City, California writer, publicly known for his record-setting success as a contestant on the U.S. television game show Jeopardy!-Biography:...
, with respective final scores of $62,000, $34,599, and $20,600. Jennings won the $500,000 prize for second place, but as a result of the Ultimate Tournament, Rutter temporarily displaced him as the highest overall winner of money on a game show. Jennings has said he is still happy with his second-place finish. (Jennings and Rutter returned to Jeopardy! in February 2011 to challenge IBM's Watson computer.)
After Jeopardy!
When asked what he intended to do with his streak winnings, Jennings said that he intended to titheTithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
ten percent to his church, donate to public television and National Public Radio, go on a trip to Europe, and invest the rest for his family. Jeopardy! contestants typically receive their winnings approximately 120 days after their last game airs in the form of a check. Taking advantage of the notoriety that Jennings's losing Final Jeopardy! answer afforded, H&R Block offered Jennings free tax planning and financial services for the rest of his life. H&R Block senior vice president David Byers estimated that Jennings would owe approximately $1.04 million in taxes on his winnings.
In 2004 Democratic politicians Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid
Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S...
unsuccessfully asked Jennings to run for the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from Utah. Jennings observed that "That was when I realized the Democratic Party was f@#$ed in '04
United States elections, 2004
The 2004 United States general elections were held on November 2, with George W. Bush being re-elected to a second term as President. Riding Bush's coattails, the Republicans picked up net gains of 4 Senate seats and 3 House seats, increasing their majorities in both House in Congress. In the state...
."
Jennings has written three books. Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs (2006, Villard
Villard (imprint)
Villard, also known as Villard Books, is a major publishing imprint of Random House, one of the largest publishing companies in the world. It was founded in 1983. Villard began as an independent imprint of Random House, and are currently an imprint of Ballantine Books, itself a subsidiary of Random...
, ISBN 1-4000-6445-7, trade paperback ISBN 0-8129-7499-9) details his experiences on Jeopardy! and his research into trivia culture conducted after the completion of his run. Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days, a hardcover book (2008, Villard, ISBN 0-345-59997-2), is a compilation of trivia questions—with 3 categories and about 20 questions per day of the year. Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks (2011, Scribner
Charles Scribner's Sons
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon...
, ISBN 1-439-16717-6) explores the world of map and geography enthusiasts.
Jennings also had a column in Mental Floss
Mental floss
Mental Floss is a bi-monthly American magazine, launched in 2001 in Birmingham, Alabama, that presents facts and trivia in a humorous way...
magazine called "Six Degrees of Ken Jennings", in which readers submit two wildly different things and he has to connect them in exactly six moves, much in the same vein as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is a trivia game based on the concept of the small world phenomenon and rests on the assumption that any individual involved in the Hollywood, California film industry can be linked through his or her film roles to actor Kevin Bacon within six steps. The name of the game...
game. The column ran from November 2005; to the September–October 2010 issue.
According to Variety.com
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, Jennings and television producer Michael Davies
Michael Davies (television producer)
Michael Davies is a British producer of television game shows in the United States. As president and CEO of Embassy Row, a New York-based television production company that is a unit of Sony Pictures Television, he was the executive producer of the U.S. version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire...
teamed up as executive producers on a new game show format for Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
. According to Comedy Central execs, it was planned that Jennings would co-host and participate. The series was planned to premiere late in 2005 or in the first quarter of 2006; as of April 2006, development had stalled, and the show's future remained uncertain. Jennings explained on his website that "Stephen Colbert's show was doing so well in its post-Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
spot that Comedy Central decided they weren't in the market for a quiz show anymore." However, as of mid-2006, he was still shopping a potential game show titled, Ken Jennings vs. the Rest of the World.
Jennings appeared on The Colbert Report on September 14, 2006. During the interview, Colbert
Stephen Colbert (character)
The Reverend / Sir / Dr. / Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A., brain-child of Google, is the persona of political satirist Stephen Colbert, as portrayed on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Described as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed high-status idiot", the character is a self-obsessed right-wing...
discussed Jennings's book, Brainiac, and mocked him not knowing the number of pages the book contained. After Colbert coined a word to describe intellectual nerdiness, "poindexterity", Jennings was going back and forth of what is the correct noun for "poindexter." Jennings noted, as he had done earlier that day on NPR's Talk of the Nation
Talk of the Nation
Talk of the Nation is a talk radio program based in the United States, produced by National Public Radio, and is broadcast nationally from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Its focus is current events and controversial issues....
, that since his streak, people "seem to have an extra-hard trivia question" in case they run into him.
He also appeared twice on NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is an hour-long weekly radio news panel game show produced by Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio. It is distributed by NPR in the United States, internationally on NPR Worldwide and on the Internet via podcast, and typically broadcast on weekends by member...
program. In his Feb. 25, 2006 appearance on the "Not My Job" segment, he answered all three questions correctly, winning for a listener Carl Kasell
Carl Kasell
Carl Kasell is an American radio personality, most widely known as a newscaster for National Public Radio and as the official judge and scorekeeper of the weekly news quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!.-Early life:...
's voice on that person's answering machine. Jennings stated, "This is, this is the proudest moment of my game show life."
Other game show appearances
Ken Jennings appeared on the first two episodes of the NBC game show 1 vs. 100 on October 13 and 20, 2006 as a mob member. He incorrectly answered the question, "what color is the number 1 space on a standard roulette wheel?" as "black" instead of "red" in his second episode, eliminating him from the game. (He explained that he did not know the answer because his MormonMormonism
Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...
faith prohibits gambling.) He left the show with $714.29, his share of a $35,000 prize shared among 49 Mob members. Jennings returned to the show for a special "Last Man Standing" episode aired on February 9, 2007. He was eliminated on the final question, which asked which of the three options had been married the most times; he answered King Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, while the correct answer was Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
. This episode was the first time Jennings had a chance at a rematch against rival Brad Rutter
Brad Rutter
Bradford Gates "Brad" Rutter is the biggest all-time money winner on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and the second biggest all-time money winner on a game show....
, who was also part of the mob and was eliminated before Jennings.
In 2007, Jennings was invited to be a contestant on the game show Grand Slam hosted by Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references...
and Amanda Byram
Amanda Byram
Amanda Byram is an Irish television presenter, originally from Castleknock in Dublin, Ireland.-Early life:Formerly a model, Byram started her career on television in 1999 presenting the TV3 morning show Ireland AM with Mark Cagney, during which time she met her then boyfriend comedian Patrick...
, also a Sony Pictures production. The show debuted on GSN on August 4, 2007, and featured sixteen former game-show winners in a single-elimination tournament. Jennings, seeded second behind Brad Rutter, won the tournament and became the 2007 Grand Slam Champion after defeating Ogi Ogas
Ogi Ogas
Dr. Ogi Jonathan Ogas is a cognitive neuroscientist, science book author, and game show contestant.- Life and works :...
(a second-round winner against Rutter) in the finals. He earned $100,000 for his victory.
Jennings was a contestant on an episode of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? is a television game show format based on asking grade-school level questions to adults, hosted by Jeff Foxworthy...
that aired on October 10, 2008, which held the possibility of exceeding fellow Jeopardy! winner Brad Rutter
Brad Rutter
Bradford Gates "Brad" Rutter is the biggest all-time money winner on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and the second biggest all-time money winner on a game show....
's total game show winnings. After winning $500,000, enough to surpass Rutter's total, Jennings chose not to attempt the final $1,000,000 question, which would have deducted $475,000 from his winnings if he missed it. As is customary on the show, Jennings was then shown the question to see what would have happened, and he provided the correct answer. Had he risked his winnings and correctly answered the question, he would have become the show's second $1,000,000 winner.
As of October 31, 2008, Ken is appearing on GSN on Fridays for the trivia game Stump the Master
GSN Live
GSN Live is an American live interactive show on Game Show Network that premiered on February 25, 2008 at noon ET and officially ended its 3 year run on July 29, 2011. The last "live" edition aired May 13, 2011...
. Home viewers send questions via the GSN website. Four callers are put on hold and Ken selects from one of the categories. The category for the caller he picked comes on the line and reads the question. If Ken does not answer or is incorrect, the caller wins $1,000 or more. Anytime Ken is right, the jackpot is increased by $1,000. All callers are given a small prize, whether or not they participated on the air themselves.
Jennings also appeared on two other Sony Pictures Television game shows, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television quiz show which offers a maximum prize of $1,000,000 for correctly answering 14 consecutive multiple-choice questions of random difficulty. Until 2010, the format required contestants to correctly answer 15 consecutive questions of increasing...
, as a frequent expert for the lifeline "Ask the Expert" (his appearances were after Sony acquired Millionaire packager 2waytraffic
2waytraffic
2waytraffic is a television production company based in Hilversum, Netherlands. It was established in 2004 by former Endemol executives Kees Abrahams, Unico Glorie, Taco Ketelaar and Henk Keilman....
in 2008), and also taped a pilot for the proposed 2009 CBS revival of Sony's The $25,000 Pyramid
Pyramid (game show)
Pyramid is an American television game show which has aired several versions. The original series, The $10,000 Pyramid, debuted March 26, 1973 and spawned seven subsequent Pyramid series...
.
Blog entry misinterpreted as critical of Jeopardy!
Jennings made the news in July 2006 when an article in the New York PostNew York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
written by Michael Starr was published claiming that Jennings had been critical of Jeopardy! on his blog. Citing statements that Jennings wrote on it, Starr's article focuses on Jennings's "criticism" of the show and host Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek
George Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...
.
Jennings responded on his own personal blog (at http://ken-jennings.com/blog/?p=83), saying, "...there’s no way I was genuinely calling for angry bees and ventriloquist’s dummies to be added to the Jeopardy! format. It’s a humor piece, and one which gets its laughs from the outrageous non sequiturs it proposes, not the ripeness of its target for criticism." Jennings had already posted a more serious comment defending Trebek that remains on his website.
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
put his performance on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Answer: A software engineer from Utah, he dominated the quizfest for a record 74 shows in 2004, amassing $2,520,700. Question: Who is Ken Jennings?"
American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
Jennings won the rookieRookie
Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of their sport or has little or no professional experience. The term also has the more general meaning of anyone new to a profession, training or activity Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of...
division of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) in 2006. In his first time competing, Jennings placed 37th overall. He also served as the award's presenter, becoming the first contestant to present an award to himself. He has not competed in the tournament since.
IBM Challenge
From February 14–16, 2011, the IBM Challenge featured IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
's Watson
Watson (artificial intelligence software)
Watson is an artificial intelligence computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM's DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's first president, Thomas J...
facing off against Jennings and Rutter in two matches played over three days. The winner of the competition was Watson, winning $1 million for two charities, while Ken Jennings took second place with Brad Rutter falling in a close third, receiving $300,000 and $200,000, respectively. Jennings and Rutter each pledged to donate half of their winnings to charity.
This was the first ever man-versus-machine competition in Jeopardy!
Deep Space Homer
"Deep Space Homer" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons fifth season and first aired on February 24, 1994. The episode was directed by Carlos Baeza and was the only episode of The Simpsons written by David Mirkin, who was also the executive producer at the time...
".
Jennings wrote about his experience playing against Watson
Watson (artificial intelligence software)
Watson is an artificial intelligence computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM's DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's first president, Thomas J...
for the online magazine Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
.
Records
During his streak, Jennings broke the following records:| Description | Current record | Previous record |
|---|---|---|
| Highest American game show winnings total | $3,773,414.29 | $3,270,102.00 by Brad Rutter Brad Rutter Bradford Gates "Brad" Rutter is the biggest all-time money winner on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and the second biggest all-time money winner on a game show.... |
| Most consecutive appearances on Jeopardy! Jeopardy! Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories... |
75 episodes (74 wins, 1 loss) | 8 episodes (7 wins, 1 loss) by Tom Walsh, January 5–14, 2004 |
| Most consecutive appearances on a syndicated game show | 46 episodes (43 wins, 4 ties, 1 loss — more than one game could be played on an episode, and some games were part of two episodes) by Thom McKee Thom McKee Thom McKee is a former United States Navy officer who was a long-running contestant on Tic Tac Dough, an American game show, in 1980. He set a number of game show records for the time, appearing on forty-six episodes of the series and winning $312,700 in cash and prizes... on Tic Tac Dough, 1980 |
|
| Most total appearances on Jeopardy! Jeopardy! Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories... , including tournaments |
81 episodes (including Ultimate Tournament of Champions and the 2011 IBM Challenge) | 16 episodes by Bob Verini, 1986–2002 (regular season-5x, Tournament of Champions-4x, Super Jeopardy!-3x, Masters Tournament-4x) |
| Highest total winnings on Jeopardy! Jeopardy! Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories... in non-tournament play1 |
US$2,520,700 | US$184,900 by Tom Walsh, January 5–13, 2004 US$102,597 (adjusted to $205,194) by Frank Spangenberg Frank Spangenberg Lieutenant Frank Spangenberg garnered fame in 1990 when he set the five-day cumulative winnings record on the game show Jeopardy!, becoming the first person to win more than $100,000 in five days on the show... , January 9–15, 1990 (prior to increase in clue value) |
| Highest 5-game total on Jeopardy! Jeopardy! Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories... , consecutive |
US$221,200 (games 34–38) | US$154,200 by Tom Walsh (games 3–7), January 7–13, 2004 US$102,597 (adjusted to $205,194) by Frank Spangenberg, January 9–15, 1990 (prior to increase in clue value) |
| Highest 5-game total on Jeopardy! Jeopardy! Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories... , best 5 games |
US$286,099 (games 28, 29, 37, 38 and 71) | |
| 1Not included in these totals is a $2,000 consolation prize Jennings and Walsh each received for finishing in second place at the end of their respective runs. However, it is included in the table below. Spangenberg only received $75,000 of his winnings due to an earnings cap in effect at the time; the balance went to charity. 2Jennings has an overall game-show winnings total of $3,773,414.29, including $714.29 in winnings from 1 vs 100, where he was a one of 49 members of the mob on the October 20, 2006; $100,000 from his appearance on GSN's Grand Slam; and $500,000 from his appearance on the October 10, 2008 episode of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? is a television game show format based on asking grade-school level questions to adults, hosted by Jeff Foxworthy... . |
||
He also tied the following records:
| Description | Current record |
|---|---|
| Most consecutive appearances on a game show | 75 episodes by Ian Lygo Ian Lygo Ian Lygo , a civil servant, from Hemel Hempstead, is the former sole holder of the record for the most consecutive appearances by a contestant on a television game show, having made 75 appearances on the UK game show 100% in late 1998, with the 75th appearance occurring on 14 December of that year.... on 100%, 19981 |
| Most opponents defeated on a game show | 150 by Ian Lygo Ian Lygo Ian Lygo , a civil servant, from Hemel Hempstead, is the former sole holder of the record for the most consecutive appearances by a contestant on a television game show, having made 75 appearances on the UK game show 100% in late 1998, with the 75th appearance occurring on 14 December of that year.... on 100%, 19982 |
The following records, having been set by Ken Jennings, have now been broken by others:
| Description | Current record | Jennings' record |
|---|---|---|
| Highest total earnings on Jeopardy! Jeopardy! Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories... |
US$3,255,102 by Brad Rutter Brad Rutter Bradford Gates "Brad" Rutter is the biggest all-time money winner on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and the second biggest all-time money winner on a game show.... , May 25, 2005 (does not include value of two 2000 Chevrolet Camaro coupes he won as a five-time champion) |
US$3,022,700 |
| Highest 5-game total on Jeopardy! Jeopardy! Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories... , first 5 games (unadjusted) |
US$195,801 by Roger Craig Roger Craig (Jeopardy! contestant) Roger Alan Craig is an American game show contestant who holds the all-time record for single-day winnings on the quiz show Jeopardy! In 2011, Craig returned to Jeopardy, winning the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions.-Early life and non-game-show career:... , September 17, 20101 |
US$156,000 |
| Highest single-game total on Jeopardy! Jeopardy! Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories... |
US$77,000 by Roger Craig, September 14, 2010 | US$75,000 |
1Larissa Kelly Larissa Kelly Larissa Kelly is a Jeopardy! contestant who resides in El Cerrito, California. During her regular run on Jeopardy!, she won a total of $222,597 over six games and $1,000 3rd place consolation prize in her seventh, with her last appearance airing May 28, 2008... won $179,797 in her first five games, breaking Ken Jennings's $156,000. However, Kelly's record was broken by Roger Craig Roger Craig (Jeopardy! contestant) Roger Alan Craig is an American game show contestant who holds the all-time record for single-day winnings on the quiz show Jeopardy! In 2011, Craig returned to Jeopardy, winning the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions.-Early life and non-game-show career:... . |
||
Jennings was not eligible for the 2006 Tournament of Champions. By accepting a bye into the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, Jennings was guaranteed $250,000. This bye also required that he give up his right to play in the 2006 Tournament of Champions. Rutter's total of $3,255,102 includes $55,102 in his five days and $3,000,000 in special tournament play, but does not include his two Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is an automobile manufactured by General Motors under the Chevrolet brand, classified as a pony car and some versions also as a muscle car. It went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed as a competing model to the Ford Mustang...
s he won on the game.
Endorsements
Jennings agreed to a deal with MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
to promote its discontinued Encarta
Encarta
Microsoft Encarta was a digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation from 1993 to 2009. , the complete English version, Encarta Premium, consisted of more than 62,000 articles, numerous photos and illustrations, music clips, videos, interactive contents, timelines, maps and...
encyclopedia software. He is also engaged in speaking deals through the Massachusetts-based speakers agency, American Program Bureau. Cingular Wireless
Cingular Wireless
AT&T Mobility LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T that provides wireless services to 100.7 million subscribers in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands...
(now AT&T) featured Jennings in commercials portraying Jennings as having lots of "friends and family" (coming out of the woodwork, because he is now "stinking rich") in 2005.
University Games produced a Can You Beat Ken? board game, in which players vie against each other and Jennings in an attempt to earn $2.6 million first. Each question in the game was asked to Jennings, and his answers are recorded on the cards.