Jeopardy's Biggest Winner Ever: Who Is Ken Jennings?
Ken Jennings became a household name in 2004. Many know him as ‘the Jeopardy guy’ but since he took the title of longest running series of straight wins from the iconic trivia show with a record 74 wins, Jennings’ career has shifted from computer programmer to game show host and more.
Ironically, Jennings almost didn’t audition for the show. In 2003, he and a former college friend from the quiz bowl team were in Los Angeles and decided to audition. After calling Sony, they discovered auditions were not planned until a few days after the two were to leave L.A.
Disappointed by the scheduling conflict, the two decided to return a few days after their trip, simply to try out for a ‘bucket-list’ dream and the rest is history.
The all-star Jeopardy! contestant has said his goal was to just win one game; anything more than that was just gravy. He did win one game, and then another, and yet another, until Jennings had appeared on the game show for a consecutive six months, 74 game winning streak and took home a massive fortune of $2.5 million. What was the question that halted him in his tracks?
The clue: Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.
Competitor Nancy Zerg wrote down H&R Block and Jennings faulted with an answer of FedEx, giving Zerg the win and officially ending his winning streak.
Over the years, others have attempted to break that streak and have come close. James Holzhauer won 32 consecutive games and holds the single-game earnings record of $131,127 according to Deseret News.
Brad Rutter won five consecutive days on the game show back when the rules stipulated after five days, the champion retired undefeated and would return for the Tournament of Champions. He received two Chevrolet cars for his win and later, earned $100,000 defeating other five-day champions in the Tournament of Champions and another $1 million prize when he returned for 2002’s Million Dollar Masters tournament, making Rutter the largest money winner in Jeopardy! history.
The rules changed and Jennings took over as champion two years later. He returned numerous times over the years, including the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005, the IBM Challenge in 2001, Battles of the Decades in 2014 and the All-Stars Games in 2019.
In 2020, Jennings, Holzhauer and Rutter took the stage for the ultimate Greatest of All Time (GOAT) tournament, with Jennings taking home the honor. Also in 2020, he officially joined Jeopardy! as a segment producer, according to Jeopardy.com.
When legendary host, Alex Trebek passed away from a battle with pancreatic cancer in Nov. of 2020, Jennings once again graced the stage as interim host for the show from Jan. 4 through Feb. 19.
Once a simple computer programmer and now a record-holding trivia master, Jennings was treated to the full gamut. He appeared on The Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman and Live With Regis and Kelly among many others.
He was named as one of Barbara Walters most fascinating people of the year and according to CloserWeekly, the Seattle man appeared in several commercials: FedEx, Allstate, Microsoft, Cingular, IBM and yes, H&R Block.
Jennings began speaking at colleges and corporate events on the importance of education and life-time learning.
He also became somewhat of a game show connoisseur, appearing on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and began hosting others such as Stump the Master and Clued In. Most recently, Jennings is competing alongside past competitors, Rutter and Holzhauer in The Chase, a quiz show that pits three master quiz winners against the chaser, another trivia genius.
In addition to making his rounds as game show contestant and host, Jennings has many other aspirations. He’s an author of none other, than trivia books. He’s published “Brainiac” about the obsession with trivia in America, “Ken Jennings’s Trivia Almanac”, boasting the largest trivia book compiled and “Maphead” a novel about his lifelong love with geography. Jennings has also written, “Because I Said So!” a parenting book for millennials and “The Junior Genius Guides”.
He’s created a following on social media, matching many celebrities fan numbers. Twitter named Jennings account as one of the best 75 Twitter accounts in 2014 and he boasts more than 450,000 subscribers. Follow Jennings, and you’ll receive seven trivia questions per week, one of which is specifically designed to be Google-resistant.
Jennings is also a father and husband. He’s been married to wife, Mindy, since 2000 and the couple has two teenage children, Dylan and Caitlyn and a dog named Chance.
Sources: Deseret News, Jeopardy.com, CloserWeekly
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