Jeopardy winner on a roll

[BruceH]

.. But I assume he'll get a load of endorsement deals for all kinds of products, services, etc.. Not bad!

I didn't think of that!

[BERIGAN]

Is the end near???

Jeopardy!' brainiac at wits end? Lock in your wager

By MARK WASHBURN

Knight Ridder Newspapers

Published on: 11/29/04

Henry VIII, Louis IV and Alexander the Great, smart guys all, had long and historic reigns, but it had to end sometime, and so it must be with America's King of Trivia, Ken Jennings.

Since June, the clean-cut software engineer from Salt Lake City has bulldozed through 73 episodes of "Jeopardy!," raking in more than $2.4 million in winnings and dazzling the nation with his command of arcane knowledge.

AP

(ENLARGE)

Ken Jennings is Jeopardy's longest winning contestant.

EMAIL THIS

PRINT THIS

MOST POPULAR

CAN YOU BEAT HIM?

Test your wits on these clues that Ken Jennings has faced. And remember, your answer must be in the form of a question.

1. U.S. presidents: With a book about the South, he became the first president, past or present, to publish a novel.

2. Entertainment: This title character, who debuted in 1999, was created by former marine biology educator Steve Hillenburg.

3. Writers: Born in 1564, he was employed by Elizabeth I's secretary of state to uncover Catholic plots against her reign.

4. Fruit: This fruit of North America shares its name with a literary character who debuted in an 1876 novel.

5. Opera: The libretto for "William Tell" was in this language, the native tongue of neither the composer, Rossini, nor the subject.

6. International politics: Of the eight members of the G-8 industrial nations, the one with the smallest population.

7. Classic literature: "Did I request thee, maker, from my clay to mould me man " is the epigraph to this 1818 novel.

8. Historic names: In 1899, he was released from Devil's Island and pardoned for "treason under extenuating circumstances."

9. Fictional people: After a 58-year flirtation, this woman called it off temporarily in issue No. 720.

10. 19th century U.S. history: Of the five times Congress has declared war, the three during the 19th century were against these three nations.

And the questions are:

1. Who is Jimmy Carter?

2. Who is Spongebob Squarepants?

3. Who is Christopher Marlowe?

4. What is the Huckleberry?

5. What is French?

6. What is Canada?

7. What is "Frankenstein"?

8. Who is Capt. Alfred Dreyfus?

9. Who is Lois Lane?

10. What are Britain, Mexico and Spain?

If you got all 10 right, you beat Ken Jennings, who got one wrong — he fumbled No. 10 on Friday, when he correctly answered it, then crossed out Britain and wrote in "Confederate States of America."

(Source: Sony Pictures Television)

———

THE JENNINGS JUGGERNAUT

JUNE 2: He wins $37,201 on his first appearance.

JULY 13: Crests the $1 million mark in total winnings.

JULY 23: Beats his single-day record by winning $75,000.

SEPT. 15: Breaks longest winning streak on a game show.

OCT. 25: Crests the $2 million mark in total winnings.

NOV 3: Becomes all-time biggest game show winner with cumulative total of $2,197,000.

TUESDAY: Plays his 75th game.

———

OTHER BIG MONEYMAKERS

Other million-dollar winners and their first appearance date on TV game shows are:

$2,180,000: Kevin Olmstead, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," ABC, April 2001.

$1,860,000: Ed Toutant, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," ABC, Sept. 2001.

$1,765,000: Lt.

David Legler, "Twenty-One," NBC, Feb. 2000.

$1,410,000: Curtis Warren, "Greed," Fox, Nov. 1999.

$1,125,000: John Carpenter, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," ABC, Nov. 1999.

$1,120,000: Rahim Oberholtzer, "Twenty-One," NBC, Feb. 2000.

$1,042,309.

16: Tim Hsieh, "It's Your Chance of a Lifetime," Fox, June 2000.

$1,000,500: Joe Trela, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," ABC, March 2000; Dan Blonsky, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," Jan. 2000.

$1,000,000: Robert "Bob-O" Essig, "Super Millionaire," ABC, Feb. 2004; Richard Bay, "Pepsi Play for a Billion," WB, Sept 2003; Bernie Cullen, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," ABC, April 2001; David Goodman, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," July 2000; Kim Hunt, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," July 2000; Bob House, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," June 2000.

Source: TVGameshows.net

———

But this week, perhaps as early as Tuesday, TV's quiz whiz will meet his match, say insiders in the game show universe.

"Jeopardy!" outcomes are TV's equivalent of state secrets. Contestants sign a contract to keep mum on the details until the show airs, and studio audiences are expected to join the conspiracy of silence.

But avid fans who form a sort of "Jeopardy!" underground believe that Jennings' 75th appearance, taped in September at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, Calif., and expected to air Tuesday, is his last.

For Jennings, authority on all things zodiacal, chronological and biblical, there are signs the end is near.

People who have attended recent tapings say Jennings is no longer on the show.

And in Washington, D.C., a group of "Jeopardy!" contestants who lost to Jennings plan to gather for a viewing party this week. Invitations are for Tuesday.

Producers for the syndicated show say they haven't publicly revealed an outcome before airtime in the last 21 seasons and aren't starting now. Even stations that carry the show are in the dark.

"They haven't told me," said Stu Powell, vice president and general manager of WCNC-TV, which carries "Jeopardy!" at 7 p.m. weeknights in Charlotte, N.C.

Mirroring a national trend, his station is seeing the highest ratings for "Jeopardy!" in years.

Up to 10 percent of households in the Charlotte area — that's about 100,000, says Nielsen Media Research — are tuning in for Jennings' mental gymnastics some nights, a rating that exceeds most of NBC's prime-time programming on WCNC.

But while still a big draw, Jennings' ratings have drifted off from the summer when he was approaching the $1 million total in overall winnings and setting other game show records.

It may be a sign that some viewers miss the more competitive days of the show and are growing tired of Jennings' streak.

"It now looks to many people that it may never end," said Powell.

In the months of the streak, Jennings' opponents — dubbed "Kennon fodder" in some circles — had to balance the thrill of getting their onetime shot on "Jeopardy!" against the disappointment of having to face quizdom's heavyweight champ.

"It was like, 'Hey! I did really good and I'm never going to be on again," said Dr. Jeff Suchard of Placentia, Calif., who was within a competitive $4,900 of Jennings going into Final Jeopardy on the Oct. 4 episode.

Suchard lost (the category was "Poets"), and under the show's current rules, cannot try out again. But he's hoping "Jeopardy!" might develop special episodes for those who scored well against Jennings.

"We're all hoping they'll have a 'Ken Jennings Road Kill' tournament," said Suchard, an emergency room physician.

Suchard said Jennings is as unassuming in person as the image he projects on the screen.

"It would be wonderful if he was a jerk and everyone could hate him, but he's nice and he's gracious," Suchard said. "He's just on another level of play."

[JSngry]

I've watched Jeopardy since the Art Fleming NBC daytime days, and I'm having a very hard time believing that one guy can win this much for this long without some kind of "assistance". Maybe not (or maybe...) getting the answers, but something like a "friendly buzzer", or "carefully selected" competition, or something.

Be realistic - two or three weeks is the max that a streak should be able to last in a game like this if everything's level. What we're seeing ain't natural.

[Dan Gould]

I've watched Jeopardy since the Art Fleming NBC daytime days, and I'm having a very hard time believing that one guy can win this much for this long without some kind of "assistance". Maybe not (or maybe...) getting the answers, but something like a "friendly buzzer", or "carefully selected" competition, or something.

Be realistic - two or three weeks is the max that a streak should be able to last in a game like this if everything's level. What we're seeing ain't natural.

Maybe he ain't natural.

Actually, there's no basis for your assumption of how long a champion might last without the previous system of artificial 'term limits', because he was one of the first champions after the rules change. There were some five day champions who kicked ass-who knows how long they might have lasted. If no one ever again goes beyond the two or three weeks you are postulating as the "natural" limit, then I might consider your hypothesis.

But remember, outliers are data, too. They just happen to be off the charts.

And another thing to consider:

The quiz show scandal almost destroyed game shows. Why would a producer risk it all for something like this?

[Big Wheel]

This guy is still around? Yeesh.

I doubt this guy is way better in terms of trivia knowledge than many Jeopardy players. The difference must be that he has complete mastery over the timing of the buzzer.

[take5]

The more on is on the show, the better one's mastery of the buzzer. That gives Ken that advantage.

But his greatest skill is his ability to make educated guesses. You don't need to know everything to win at Jeopardy!, you need to be generally well-educated enought to make good guesses for some of the harded questions. It's kind of like the SATs in that regard.

Of course it doesn't hurt him that he's very well read, is a big movie fan, and knows the Bible back and forth.

I think I'm the only one I know who has been enjoying the Ken Jennings Show.

[DrJ]

Having watched a goodly number of the shows the guy has been on, I think it's very logical that this is just a natural winning streak. I agree with his skill at making educated guesses. I'd add to that his coolness under fire - which in turn ALLOWS him to hesitate for just a moment (e.g. when answering Daily Doubles etc) and MAKE those educated guesses. Plus the more he does it, the better he gets.

DiMaggio's streak didn't seem possible to most of us mere mortals either, but it was.

[Quincy]

If they're ever going to have a Tournament of Champions, he'd better lose.

[ghost of miles]

If they're ever going to have a Tournament of Champions, he'd better lose.

My crystal ball tells me that such an event is about to happen. B-)

[Guest Chaney]

December 1, 2004

'Jeopardy!' Whiz Ken Jennings Loses

By RANDY KENNEDY

In the end, after all the mind-bendingly tough answers like Leif Ericson, Johannes Kepler, George III and Ecuador (the clue: "a Spanish dictionary defines it as 'Circulo maximo que equidista de los polos de la Tierra,' ") it was a plain old accounting firm that finally brought down Ken Jennings, the "Jeopardy!" champion, ending the longest winning streak in game show history.

Answer: Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.

On last night's show Mr. Jennings responded, "What is Fed Ex?," while his opponent Nancy Zerg, a Realtor from Ventura, Calif., answered correctly, "What is H & R Block?" And so, after 75 shows, 2,700 correct responses and more than $2.5 million in winnings, Mr. Jennings - a software engineer from Salt Lake City who became a smiling, brainy pop-culture hero during his winning streak - finally put down his buzzer.

Yesterday, with his wife, Mindy, in a hotel room overlooking Times Square, Mr. Jennings, who taped the last show in September and has had to keep quiet about his loss since then, said it almost made sense to lose on such a mundane topic.

"I do my own taxes," he said, grinning. "I would have never thought of taxes." But as he prepared for a post-loss media blitz that included "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Nightline," flashes of Mr. Jennings's mild-mannered but deadly competitiveness showed through.

"The woman next to me just knew it immediately," he said, describing his final final "Jeopardy!" question. "I could hear her little light pen writing, and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, she knows this.' And I had no idea."

In becoming a one-name television phenomenon - known in game-show circles as KenJen, the game show equivalent of Ali or Jordan or Tiger - Mr. Jennings single-handedly raised the ratings for "Jeopardy!," which decided to delay broadcasting his last show until last night, the final night of the television sweeps month. Mr. Jennings's streak began on June 2, after "Jeopardy!," in a move to increase its viewership, dropped its 20-year policy of retiring undefeated champions after five games. By the show that was broadcast on Nov. 3, when he hit $2.19 million in winnings, Mr. Jennings had buzzed his way past Kevin Olmstead, who previously held the record for highest game-show winnings after his success on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

But Mr. Jennings, 30, said his life had actually changed very little since he became a celebrity, partly because he was contractually bound not to talk about his streak while it was under way, and in fact sometimes kept even his own mother in the dark - though that was mostly just in jest, he said.

He is now recognized almost everywhere, and his wife said she no longer asked him to swing by the grocery store because he would have to sign dozens of autographs in the checkout line. In New York this week, he said, a woman at St. Patrick's Cathedral interrupted her prayers when she recognized him.

"It's difficult just because it never really lets up," he said. "It's always the same questions. It's always the viselike grip of the little old ladies."

His wife said: "He's had bruises on his arm. I'm not kidding."

But in other ways, fame and fortune have not descended on him as they have on some lottery winners, he said. He and his wife have not gone on shopping sprees. (He did buy a big-screen television recently, but he'd been saving for it for years.) They are planning a nice European vacation, but probably not a long one because they are parents of a 2-year-old son. Devout Mormons, they have donated tens of thousands of dollars of winnings to the church. And Mr. Jennings has even - true to his "Jeopardy!" champion personality - checked a book out of his local library with advice on how best to avoid the difficulties faced by people who experience financial windfalls.

"There are unbelievable statistics," he said, "that three-quarters of all people who have some big windfall are out of money within two to five years. So many people are not smart about it. So I think it would be very ironic if I got the money for being smart and then did, like, something incredibly dumb with it."

He said that he had taken a leave from his job to write a book about his experience but that he hoped the money would simply pay for him to be "Mr. Mom" for a while.

Mr. Jennings said it was often hard to read about himself and hear himself described on television as a grinning nerd and a cold-blooded game show assassin during his "Jeopardy!" reign. But he said he actually expected the anti-Ken backlash to start earlier and was gratified that many people continued to root for him even when he became a one-man Yankees of the game show world.

"People are going to think what they are going to think," he said. "I tried to remove myself from it."

"You come to realize that it's not about you," he added. "They're just watching some TV game show version of you for 22 minutes," he said, adding that he sometimes was among the rapt viewers and ended up unwittingly admiring himself. "I watched myself on TV and thought, 'Wow, Ken's doing really good.' "

Mr. Jennings, getting ready for the Letterman show yesterday afternoon and tucking into a room service cheeseburger, said that though he prized his privacy, he was seriously considering trying to trade on his fame and go where many other reality-television stars have gone, onto the B or maybe C list of the celebrity promotions world.

"A lot of these things might be sort of fun, you know, if somebody had an idea for a commercial endorsement or speaking," he said. "So I guess I am sort of perpetuating my own lack of anonymity."

But for the next few months, he plans to spend lots of time at home, where he will continue to read obsessively, speed through crossword puzzles and do most of the things he has always done. Except, of course, his own taxes. "H & R Block got hold of me and they've offered me free financial services for life," he said, grinning as if he had just nailed a question on medieval horticulture. "So that I never forget their name again."

Edited December 1, 2004 by Chaney

[Big Al]

WAAAAIT a second: he didn’t know the answer to such a simple question? H&R Block?!?!?!? I don’t buy that for a second!

But then maybe it's because I'm an accountant that the questions seems more obvious....

[maren]

WAAAAIT a second: he didn’t know the answer to such a simple question? H&R Block?!?!?!? I don’t buy that for a second!

But then maybe it's because I'm an accountant that the questions seems more obvious....

I do my own taxes -- but the answer was still obvious to me! Is H&R Block not big in Utah?

[maren]

I've watched Jeopardy since the Art Fleming NBC daytime days, and I'm having a very hard time believing that one guy can win this much for this long without some kind of "assistance". Maybe not (or maybe...) getting the answers, but something like a "friendly buzzer", or "carefully selected" competition, or something.

Be realistic - two or three weeks is the max that a streak should be able to last in a game like this if everything's level.  What we're seeing ain't natural.

Maybe he ain't natural.

Actually, there's no basis for your assumption of how long a champion might last without the previous system of artificial 'term limits', because he was one of the first champions after the rules change. There were some five day champions who kicked ass-who knows how long they might have lasted. If no one ever again goes beyond the two or three weeks you are postulating as the "natural" limit, then I might consider your hypothesis.

But remember, outliers are data, too. They just happen to be off the charts.

You're right, Dan. Ken Jennings himself said the same thing (no one knows how well previous 5-time champions would have done) on Letterman last night. Plus, in addition to increasing skill with the buzzer, he said that first-time players come in with stage fright, or overwhelmed by being on TV (lights, cameras, hubbub) -- for him, it started to feel like reporting to work at a job he kept getting better at.

[connoisseur series500]

The guy's got a lightning-quick, instant-recall memory as well. That certainly helps...

[RDK]

I hear he's a smart guy too...

[JSngry]

I remain skeptical.

[Leeway]

The more on is on the show, the better one's mastery of the buzzer. That gives Ken that advantage.

But his greatest skill is his ability to make educated guesses. You don't need to know everything to win at Jeopardy!, you need to be generally well-educated enought to make good guesses for some of the harded questions. It's kind of like the SATs in that regard.

Of course it doesn't hurt him that he's very well read, is a big movie fan, and knows the Bible back and forth.

I think I'm the only one I know who has been enjoying the Ken Jennings Show.

I had a friend who appeared on Jeopardy. There is a very lengthy amd complicated screening process just to get on the show. My friend told me that working the buzzer is really a big part of doing well on the show. It's not really a buzzer, or at least it's not as simple as clicking a button. It has a rubbery feel. There is a lockout mechanism too. So, yes, the more you are on the show, the better you get at manipulating the buzzer (reading this description over, sounds a lot like something else ).

[BruceH]

So long, Ken, we'll miss you!!!!!

Seriously, did you see the lucky woman who won? She was so surprised! It was rather funny and charming. Good for her!

[Guest Chaney]

Did this woman successfully defend her win?

[take5]

No, came in third place.