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Ken Jennings

January 01, 1970

This article is about the Jeopardy! champion and host. For other people named Ken Jennings, see Ken Jennings (disambiguation).

Kenneth Wayne Jennings III (born May 23, 1974) is an American game show host, author, and former game show contestant. He is the highest-earning American game show contestant, having won money on five different game shows, including $4,522,700 on the U.S. game show Jeopardy!. From 2021 to 2023, Jennings and Mayim Bialik alternated as hosts of that show, as well as Celebrity Jeopardy![2][3] In 2023, Jennings received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Game Show.[4] In December 2023, Jennings was announced as Jeopardy!’s permanent main host.[5]

Ken Jennings
Jennings in 2007
Born
Kenneth Wayne Jennings III[1]

(1974-05-23) May 23, 1974 (age 49)
Edmonds, Washington, U.S.
Alma materBrigham Young University (BA, BS)
Occupations
  • Game show contestant
  • game show host
  • author
  • podcaster
Years active2004–present
Known for
  • Holding the record for all-time American game show winnings
  • Having the longest Jeopardy! winning streak
  • Hosting Jeopardy! and Celebrity Jeopardy!
Spouse
Mindy Boam
​
(m. 2000)​
Children2
Websiteken-jennings.com

Jennings holds the record for the longest winning streak on Jeopardy! with 74 consecutive wins. He also holds the record for the highest average correct responses per game in Jeopardy! history (for those contestants with at least 300 correct responses) with 35.9 during his original run (no other contestant has exceeded 30)[6] and 33.1 overall, including tournaments and special events.[7] In 2004, Jennings won 74 consecutive Jeopardy! games before he was defeated by challenger Nancy Zerg in his 75th appearance. Jennings' total earnings on Jeopardy! are $4,522,700, 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 (2005); a $300,000 second-place prize in Jeopardy!'s IBM Challenge (2011), when he lost to the Watson computer but became the first person to beat third-place finisher Brad Rutter; a $100,000 second-place prize in the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades (2014); a $100,000 second-place prize (his share of his team's $300,000 prize) in the Jeopardy! All-Star Games (2019); and a $1,000,000 first-place prize in Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time (2020).

During his first run of Jeopardy! appearances, Jennings earned the record for the highest American game show winnings. His total was surpassed by Rutter, who defeated Jennings in the finals of the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, adding $2 million to Rutter's existing Jeopardy! winnings. Jennings regained the record after appearances on several other game shows, culminating with his results on an October 2008 appearance on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, though Rutter retained the record for highest Jeopardy! winnings and once again passed Jennings' total after his victory in the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades tournament. In 2020, he once again faced off with and won against Rutter, as well as James Holzhauer, in a special primetime series, Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time.[8]

After his success on Jeopardy!, Jennings wrote about his experience and explored American trivia history and culture in his book Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs, published in 2006.

Early life edit

Kenneth Wayne Jennings III was born on May 23, 1974,[9] in Edmonds, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.[10][11] His father was a lawyer employed overseas, and Jennings spent 15 years growing up in South Korea and Singapore where his father worked.[12]

Upon returning to the United States, Jennings attended the University of Washington. Following two years as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he was assigned to serve in Madrid, Spain, Jennings transferred to Brigham Young University in 1996. One of his roommates at BYU was author Brandon Sanderson.[13] He also played on the school's quizbowl team, at one point serving as captain, and graduated in 2000 with a double major in English and computer science.[10]

Career edit

Streak on Jeopardy! edit

Before 2003, Jeopardy! contestants were limited to five consecutive wins. At the beginning of the show's 20th season in 2003, the rules were changed to allow contestants to remain on the show as long as they continued to win.[14] 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.

Jennings' run began during Jeopardy!'s 20th season with the episode aired on June 2, 2004, in which he unseated two-time returning champion Jerry Harvey, and continued into season 21. In that first episode, Jennings' entire winning streak nearly ended before it even began. The Final Jeopardy! answer was, "She's the first female track & field athlete to win medals in five different events at a single Olympics." Jennings responded with "Who is Jones?" using only the last name of Marion Jones (who was not stripped of her medals until December 2007). Host Alex Trebek said, "We will accept that, in terms of female athletes, there aren't that many." If the response had not been accepted, Jennings would have finished in third place, and challenger Julia Lazarus would have won the game instead. Jennings' run was interrupted by the off-season break (July until September), 2004 Kids' Week, the Tournament of Champions (aired from September 20, 2004, through October 1, 2004), the 2004 United States presidential election (aired on Tuesday, November 2, 2004, pushing his weeks of episodes to air from Wednesday to Saturday) and the College Championship (aired from November 10, 2004, to November 23, 2004). As a result, he went the entire five months without a loss. Jennings did not participate in the Tournament of Champions, as invitations are extended only to champions (4 wins or more) who have been defeated (with the exception of the winner[s] of the College Championship).

End of the streak edit

On November 30, 2004, Jennings' reign as Jeopardy! champion ended when he lost his 75th game to challenger Nancy Zerg.[15] 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.[16] 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 the Double Jeopardy! round.

The Final Jeopardy! category was Business & Industry, and the clue was, "Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year." Jennings appeared perplexed during the time allowed to write a response, while Zerg finished her response quickly. 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. After his response was revealed to be incorrect, the audience audibly gasped, and Zerg appeared to be shocked after realizing that she won. Jennings was awarded $2,000 for his second-place finish, which gave him a final total of $2,522,700 for his Jeopardy! run. Zerg, whom Jennings called a "formidable opponent", finished in third place on the next show. The audience gave a standing ovation in honor of both contestants, and Alex Trebek called Zerg a "giant killer" as Jennings embraced her.

It took a span of 182 calendar days to broadcast Jennings' 75 matches. His losing episode can be seen on the 2005 DVD release of Jeopardy!: An Inside Look at America's Favorite Quiz Show, released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Effect of the streak edit

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.[17] In his book Brainiac, Jennings says that the consistency of the original manager's timing had given an increasing advantage to continuing players, and that the change made a noticeable difference in the second season that he was on the show. At one point, announcer Johnny Gilbert stopped announcing Jennings' total wins during the show's opening.[citation needed]

On December 1, 2004, the day after his defeat, Jennings made 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.[18]

According to the Nielsen TV National People Meter, Jeopardy!'s ratings were 22 percent 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.[19] By the end of Jeopardy!'s 20th season several weeks later, the show had surpassed sister program Wheel of Fortune in the ratings, though Wheel still benefited from the streak in markets where Jeopardy! is its lead-in in the common scheduling tactic for both shows.[20]

Jeopardy! tournaments edit

 
Jennings in 2005

On December 28, 2004, Sony announced a 15-week, 75-show Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions. 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 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 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 game shows. Jennings has said that he is still happy with his second-place finish.

From February 14–16, 2011, Jeopardy's "IBM Challenge" featured the company's Watson against Jennings and Rutter in two matches played over three days, the first man-versus-machine competition in the show's history.[21] The winner of the competition was Watson, winning $1,000,000 for two charities, while Jennings was second and Rutter was third, receiving $300,000 and $200,000, respectively. Jennings and Rutter each pledged to donate half of their winnings to charity. 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.[22] The competition ended with Watson with $77,147, Jennings with $24,000, and Rutter with $21,600.[23] Below his response during the Final Jeopardy! round, Jennings wrote on his screen "I for one welcome our new computer overlords." It was the first time Rutter had been defeated against any human player, although the defeat is not on Rutter's Jeopardy! official record, as the competition was deemed an exhibition. Jennings wrote about playing against Watson for Slate.[24]

In 2014, Jeopardy! aired a special five-week Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades tournament. Jennings made it to the finals along with Brad Rutter and Roger Craig. Jennings placed second, winning a $100,000 prize, and Rutter won first place, securing a $1,000,000 prize.

In the 2019 Jeopardy! All-Star Games, with 18 former champions, Jennings was one of six captains, choosing 2015 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions runner-up Matt Jackson and 2012 Jeopardy! College Champion Monica Thieu (who coincidentally eliminated Jennings in a 2016 episode of 500 Questions) to complete his three-person "Team Ken."[25] Team Ken finished second to the team captained by Rutter, with Jennings winning $100,000, one-third of the $300,000 second-place prize.[25] This brought his lifetime Jeopardy!-related winnings to $3,522,700.

In January 2020, ABC aired the Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time tournament between Jennings, Rutter, and James Holzhauer. Jennings won the championship to be crowned with the "Greatest of All Time" title and a first-place prize of $1,000,000.[26]

Jeopardy! staff edit

Consulting producer (2020–2022) edit

In September 2020, Jennings signed on as a consulting producer of Jeopardy! for the show's 37th season, a job that included reading on-air categories,[27] which ended in the months following host Alex Trebek's death later in the season.[28] Jennings held this role until the start of the show's 39th season.[citation needed]

Host (2021–present) edit

On October 29, 2020, Alex Trebek taped his final episode of Jeopardy!.[29] Contingency plans were made for him to miss the next taping, scheduled for November 9-10, 2020, as he planned to have a surgery.[30] Supervising producers Lisa Broffman and Rock Schmidt had named Ken Jennings the interim host for the taping and Jennings had a final conversation with Trebek days before the rehearsal was set to commence.[31] The rehearsal was scheduled for November 8, 2020, but was subsequently cancelled when Schmidt gave the staff the news that Trebek had died that day from stage four pancreatic cancer.[30]

On November 23, 2020, following Alex Trebek's death, it was announced that Jennings would host Jeopardy! in the first of a series of guest hosts.[32][33] His episodes aired from January 11 to February 19, 2021.[34]

In September 2021, following Mike Richards' departure early in the show's 38th season after various controversies came to light, it was announced that Jennings, along with actress Mayim Bialik, would host the show for the remainder of the season, with Jennings hosting duties exclusive to the daily syndicated series.[3][35]

In July 2022, it was announced that Jennings, along with Bialik, would split hosting duties full-time beginning with the show's 39th season.[36][37][38][39][40] In October 2022, Jennings appeared as a Clue Giver in the category "A Long Run on TV with Ken Jennings" during the Triple Jeopardy! round on the third episode of Celebrity Jeopardy! on ABC.[41]

In January 2023, it was announced that Jennings would host Jeopardy! Masters, a primetime tournament featuring six recent notable Jeopardy! champions competing against each other in a "Champions League-style" format, on ABC.[42] The program premiered on May 8, 2023.[43] Following Bialik's withdrawal from Jeopardy! on May 11, 2023 due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, the last 20 episodes of season 39 were hosted by Jennings.[44] Five days later, it was announced that Jennings would host the second season of Celebrity Jeopardy!.[45] In September of that year, Jennings received a nomination for Outstanding Host For A Game Show at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.[4] In the wake of Bialik's departure, Jennings became the permanent sole host of Jeopardy! starting with the 40th season.[46][47]

Outside Jeopardy! edit

 
Jennings in 2008

Taking advantage of the notoriety of Jennings' losing Final Jeopardy! answer, H&R Block offered Jennings free tax planning and financial services for the rest of his life.[48] H&R Block senior vice president David Byers estimated that Jennings owed about $1.04 million in taxes on his winnings.[49][50] Also, BBDO created an advertisement for FedEx in the USA Today newspaper three days after his final game, stating "There's only one time FedEx has ever been the wrong answer" and congratulating Jennings for his streak.[51]

In a 2011 Reddit AMA, Jennings recalled how in 2004 the Democratic politicians Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid unsuccessfully asked Jennings to run for the United States Senate from Utah. He commented, "That was when I realized the Democratic Party was f@#$ed in '04".[52]

Jennings has written several books. Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs details his experiences on Jeopardy! and his research into trivia culture conducted after the completion of his run.[53] Ken Jennings' Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days, a hardcover book, is a compilation of trivia questions—with three categories and about 20 questions per day of the year.[54] Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks explores the world of map and geography enthusiasts.[55] Because I Said So! is a humorous examination of "the myths, tales & warnings every generation passes down to its kids".[56] He also has written five books for his children's series, Junior Genius Guides. [57]

Jennings also had a column in Mental Floss magazine called "Six Degrees of Ken Jennings", where readers submitted two wildly different things that Jennings had to connect in exactly six steps, in the style of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game.[58] The column ran from November 2005[59] to the September–October 2010 issue.[60]

According to Variety, 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.[61] 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." As of mid-2006, he was still shopping a potential game show titled Ken Jennings vs. the Rest of the World.[62]

Jennings appeared on The Colbert Report on September 13, 2006. During the interview, Colbert discussed Jennings' book, Brainiac, and mocked him for not knowing the number of pages in the book. After Colbert coined a word to describe intellectual nerdiness, "poindexterity", Jennings deliberated what the correct noun for "poindexter" was. 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.[63]

Jennings also appeared twice on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! program. In his February 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 home answering machine. Jennings said, "This is the proudest moment of my game-show life."[64] On June 1, 2013, he made his debut as a panelist on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Jennings won the rookie division of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 2006.[65]

Jennings has written and edited literature and mythology questions for the National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT), a quiz bowl organization.[66] He has read questions as a moderator at the 2005, 2006, and 2009 NAQT High School National Championship Tournaments in Chicago. Jennings had a weekly trivia column, Kennections, in Parade magazine.[67] In it, five questions were posed whose answers were connected to a mystery topic, which the readers had to guess. Parade ceased the quiz in early 2015, and removed links to archived quizzes in March 2015. Kennections now appears in the online version of Mental Floss magazine.

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?"[68]

Jennings narrated the audiobook version of Alex Trebek's autobiography, The Answer Is.... His rendition was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 63rd Grammy Awards.[69]

Other game show appearances edit

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.[70] Jennings left the show with $714.29, his share of a $35,000 prize shared among 49 mob members. He 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 three people had been married the most times; Jennings answered King Henry VIII, while the correct answer was Larry King. It 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. It debuted on Game Show Network (GSN) on August 4, 2007, and featured 16 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?[71] that aired on October 10, 2008, which held the possibility of exceeding Rutter's total game show winnings. After winning $500,000, enough to surpass Rutter's total, Jennings chose not to attempt the million dollar question, which, if answered incorrectly, would've resulted in him losing $475,000 and leaving with $25,000. As is customary on the show, Jennings was then shown the question to see what would have happened, and he ultimately provided the correct answer. Jennings would have become the show's second million dollar winner had he decided to risk it.[72]

From 2008 to 2009, Jennings appeared on GSN on Fridays for the trivia game Stump the Master, where home viewers submitted questions via the GSN website. Four callers were put on hold and Jennings selected from one of the categories. The caller for the category he picked came on the line and read the question. If Jennings didn't answer or was incorrect, the caller won $1,000 or more. When Jennings was right, the jackpot was increased by $1,000. All callers were given a small prize whether they participated on-air or not.

 
Jennings in 2019

Jennings has appeared on multiple episodes of Doug Loves Movies, hosted by Doug Benson, and has won a few times. He 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", and also taped a pilot for the proposed 2009 CBS revival of Pyramid, titled Million Dollar Pyramid.[73][74]

Jennings appeared on Millionaire in 2014 as a contestant during Guinness World Records Edition themed week, where he won $100,000 after deciding to walk away on his $250,000 question. If he had gone for it, Jennings would have been right and would have won $250,000.[75]

Jennings appeared on the second-season premiere of 500 Questions on May 26, 2016[76] and was eliminated on the fourth question by winter 2012 college champion Monica Thieu, leaving with no winnings. Jennings later teamed up with Thieu, along with Matt Jackson, in the Jeopardy! All-Star Games in 2019.

Jennings appeared on an episode of @midnight aired May 15, 2017, during the fourth season, which he won. As a result, Jennings served as the funniest person on the internet for May 16, 2017.[77]

An announcement in April 2019 named Jennings as one of eight recurring "Trivia Experts" for the new Game Show Network program Best Ever Trivia Show, hosted by Sherri Shepherd. The show premiered at 4:00 p.m. ET on June 10, 2019.[78] Jennings was also one of the six trivia experts on Best Ever's successor, Master Minds, which premiered at 4:00 p.m. ET on April 6, 2020, with Brooke Burns as the host.[79]

In November 2020, it was announced that Jennings would be one of the three chasers on the ABC revival of The Chase, hosted by Sara Haines with Rutter and Holzhauer as the other chasers,[80] joined by Mark Labbett in season 2. Jennings left after the second season.[81] In May 2023, he competed against Mayim Bialik and Vanna White on an episode of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.[82] Jennings won $72,800 for the Equal Justice Initiative.[83]

Tuesday trivia emails edit

Every Tuesday, beginning on July 4, 2006, Jennings sent out an email containing seven questions. The seventh, a question asking what several items have in common, was designed to be Google-resistant.[84] Subscribers responded with the answers to all seven questions and the results are maintained on a scoreboard on Jennings' blog.[85] Every 10 weeks, the respondent with the most seventh questions correct was awarded a signed copy of his newest book. After 800 quizzes, as of November 16, 2021, due to an ever-increasing amount of commitments related to Jeopardy!, book tours, and simply starting to run out of material for the seventh question, Jennings decided to discontinue this email.[86]

Omnibus podcast edit

On September 7, 2017, HowStuffWorks unveiled a new show entitled Omnibus, co-hosted by Jennings and John Roderick, frontman of the indie-rock band The Long Winters. They pick topics they fear might be lost to history and discuss them.[87]

LearnedLeague and online trivia edit

Jennings has been an active member of the trivia app FleetWit, regularly playing in the live trivia races.[88] As of March 2018, on average, he had answered 89 percent of questions correctly and has won over $2,000.[89]

Jennings competed regularly in LearnedLeague under the name "JenningsK".[90] His last active season was LL85 (May 2020), where he played in the A Rundle of the Laguna league and finished the season in 5th place.[91]

Controversies edit

Controversial tweets edit

Jennings is an active Twitter user, and some of his tweets have been subjects of controversy. On September 22, 2014, Jennings received criticism after tweeting, "Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair."[92][93][94][95] The tweet reignited controversy after resurfacing in 2020, which led to condemnation from noted disability rights activists such as Rebecca Cokley.[96]

On November 10, 2015, Jennings was criticized when he tweeted a joke about the death of Daniel Fleetwood, a lifelong Star Wars fan who died of cancer. Fleetwood's dying wish was to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, fearing he likely would not live to see the film when it opened in theaters in December 2015. An online campaign was started on his behalf and his wish was granted only days before he died. Jennings said, "It can't be a good sign that every fan who has seen the new Star Wars movie died shortly thereafter."[97]

Jennings again faced controversy when on May 31, 2017, he tweeted a joke involving Barron Trump, the youngest child of former U.S. President Donald Trump. After 11-year-old Barron saw an image of Kathy Griffin holding a bloody mask modeled after his father, he believed it was real and screamed. Jennings wrote, "Barron Trump saw a very long necktie on a heap of expired deli meat in a dumpster. He thought it was his dad & his little heart is breaking."[98] After the tweet garnered controversy, Jennings said, "The joke doesn't mock Barron. It mocks using him for political cover."[99]

In August 2018, he was criticized for his description of an elderly woman tweeting about her deceased son. When she tweeted about her son's love for the 1980s television character ALF, Jennings responded with "This awful MAGA grandma is my favorite person on Twitter."[100]

In December 2020, Jennings offered an apology on Twitter for some of his past comments, and subsequently deleted said comments.[101][102]

In January 2021, Jennings faced controversy again when his friend and podcast co-host John Roderick posted a Twitter thread where he discussed preventing his nine-year-old daughter from eating until she learned to open a can of baked beans using a manual can opener, which he approximated took six hours.[103][104][105] The incident caused controversial past tweets to resurface in which Roderick made comments that were seen as using anti-semitic, homophobic, racist, and other derogatory language. Jennings defended Roderick, saying he was "a loving and attentive dad who ... tells heightened-for-effect stories."[106][105][107]

The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2021 that Jennings was intended to be Alex Trebek's successor, but his social media controversies hurt his standing, with poor ratings from focus groups and Sony executives fearing his selection could cause backlash.[108][109][110]

2023 Writers Guild of America strike edit

Main article: 2023 Writers Guild of America strike

In May 2023, the Writers Guild of America announced that its unionized writers would go on strike, as part of negotiations largely related to increases in pay, benefits, and protections against artificial intelligence.[111] Jennings' co-host on Jeopardy!, Mayim Bialik, refused to participate in the show's final week of filming as a result.[112][113] Jennings was reportedly brought in as the host for filming "as a result of Bialik's decision," crossing the Writers Guild of America West picket line.[114]

Endorsements edit

Jennings agreed to a deal with Microsoft to promote its Encarta encyclopedia software (which was later discontinued). He is also engaged in speaking deals through the Massachusetts-based speakers' agency American Program Bureau.[115] In 2005, Cingular Wireless (now AT&T) featured Jennings in commercials portraying him as having lots of "friends and family" (coming out of the woodwork once he began winning on Jeopardy!).[116]

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, both correct and incorrect, are recorded on the cards.[117]

Personal life edit

Jennings and his wife, Mindy, have two children.[10][118] He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[119] During his Jeopardy! winning streak, Jennings lived in Salt Lake City and was a software engineer for CHG Healthcare Services, a healthcare-placement firm in Holladay, Utah.[120] He and his family later moved to Seattle.[118] His youngest sister was adopted from Korea when his family lived there.[citation needed]

Recognition edit

On March 3, 2020, the Washington State Legislature approved Senate Resolution 8704, congratulating Jennings for his achievements on game shows.[11][121]

Television edit

Year Title Role Notes
2013 Marie Self Episode: Meridith Baxter & Michael Gross
2017 The Simpsons Ken Jennings (voice)
Episode: The Caper Chase[122]
2022 Call Me Kat Self Episode: Call Me Ken Jennings[123]
2022-2023 The $100,000 Pyramid Self - Celebrity Player Episode: Ken Jennings vs Ross Mathews and RuPaul vs Carson Kressley
Episode: Deon Cole vs D'arcy Carden and Ken Jennings vs Mario Cantone
2022–present Celebrity Jeopardy! Self - Clue Giver Episode: Quarterfinal #3: Constance Wu, Ike Barinholtz and Jalen Rose
Self - Host Season 2
2023 Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Self - Celebrity Contestant Episode: Vanna White, Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik
Jeopardy! Masters Self - Host 10 episodes

Bibliography edit

  • Jennings, Ken (2023). 100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-5011-3158-5. OCLC 1347430851.
  • Jennings, Ken (2018). Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-5011-0058-1.
  • Jennings, Ken (2016). Ken Jennings' Junior Genius Guides: Dinosaurs. New York: Little Simon. ISBN 978-1-4814-2956-6.
  • Jennings, Ken (2015). Ken Jennings' Junior Genius Guides: Ancient Egypt. New York: Little Simon. ISBN 978-1-4814-2952-8.
  • Jennings, Ken (2015). Ken Jennings' Junior Genius Guides: The Human Body. New York: Little Simon. ISBN 978-1-4814-0173-9.
  • Jennings, Ken (2014). Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides: Outer Space. New York: Little Simon. ISBN 978-1-4814-0170-8.
  • Jennings, Ken (2014). Ken Jennings' Junior Genius Guides: U.S. Presidents. New York: Little Simon. ISBN 978-1-4424-7332-4.
  • Jennings, Ken (2014). Ken Jennings' Junior Genius Guides: Greek Mythology. New York: Little Simon. ISBN 978-1-4424-7330-0.
  • Jennings, Ken (2014). Ken Jennings' Junior Genius Guides: Maps and Geography. New York: Little Simon. ISBN 978-1-4424-7328-7.
  • Jennings, Ken (2012). Because I Said So! The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-4516-5625-1.
  • Jennings, Ken (2011). Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-4391-6717-5.
  • Jennings, Ken (2010). Colossal Book of Wordplay. New York: Puzzlewright. ISBN 978-1-4027-6503-2., with Martin Gardner
  • Jennings, Ken (2008). Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days. New York: Villard. ISBN 978-0-345-49997-4.
  • Jennings, Ken (2006). Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs. New York: Villard. ISBN 978-1-4000-6445-8.

See also edit

References edit

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External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ken Jennings.
  • Official website  
  • Omnibus podcast web site
  • Jennings' February 2013 TED talk (video), "Watson, Jeopardy, and me, the obsolete know-it-all" February 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  • Ken Jennings at IMDb
Media offices
Preceded by
Position created
(preceded by Alex Trebek as Host of Jeopardy!)
 Guest host of Jeopardy!
January 11 – February 19, 2021 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Host of Jeopardy!
(rotating with Mayim Bialik until December 16, 2023)
November 8, 2021 – present 		Succeeded by
Incumbent

January 01, 1970
jennings, this, article, about, jeopardy, champion, host, other, people, named, disambiguation, kenneth, wayne, jennings, born, 1974, american, game, show, host, author, former, game, show, contestant, highest, earning, american, game, show, contestant, having. This article is about the Jeopardy champion and host For other people named Ken Jennings see Ken Jennings disambiguation Kenneth Wayne Jennings III born May 23 1974 is an American game show host author and former game show contestant He is the highest earning American game show contestant having won money on five different game shows including 4 522 700 on the U S game show Jeopardy From 2021 to 2023 Jennings and Mayim Bialik alternated as hosts of that show as well as Celebrity Jeopardy 2 3 In 2023 Jennings received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Game Show 4 In December 2023 Jennings was announced as Jeopardy s permanent main host 5 Ken JenningsJennings in 2007BornKenneth Wayne Jennings III 1 1974 05 23 May 23 1974 age 49 Edmonds Washington U S Alma materBrigham Young University BA BS OccupationsGame show contestant game show host author podcasterYears active2004 presentKnown forHolding the record for all time American game show winningsHaving the longest Jeopardy winning streakHosting Jeopardy and Celebrity Jeopardy SpouseMindy Boam m 2000 wbr Children2Websiteken jennings wbr com Jennings holds the record for the longest winning streak on Jeopardy with 74 consecutive wins He also holds the record for the highest average correct responses per game in Jeopardy history for those contestants with at least 300 correct responses with 35 9 during his original run no other contestant has exceeded 30 6 and 33 1 overall including tournaments and special events 7 In 2004 Jennings won 74 consecutive Jeopardy games before he was defeated by challenger Nancy Zerg in his 75th appearance Jennings total earnings on Jeopardy are 4 522 700 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 2005 a 300 000 second place prize in Jeopardy s IBM Challenge 2011 when he lost to the Watson computer but became the first person to beat third place finisher Brad Rutter a 100 000 second place prize in the Jeopardy Battle of the Decades 2014 a 100 000 second place prize his share of his team s 300 000 prize in the Jeopardy All Star Games 2019 and a 1 000 000 first place prize in Jeopardy The Greatest of All Time 2020 During his first run of Jeopardy appearances Jennings earned the record for the highest American game show winnings His total was surpassed by Rutter who defeated Jennings in the finals of the Jeopardy Ultimate Tournament of Champions adding 2 million to Rutter s existing Jeopardy winnings Jennings regained the record after appearances on several other game shows culminating with his results on an October 2008 appearance on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader though Rutter retained the record for highest Jeopardy winnings and once again passed Jennings total after his victory in the Jeopardy Battle of the Decades tournament In 2020 he once again faced off with and won against Rutter as well as James Holzhauer in a special primetime series Jeopardy The Greatest of All Time 8 After his success on Jeopardy Jennings wrote about his experience and explored American trivia history and culture in his book Brainiac Adventures in the Curious Competitive Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs published in 2006 Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2 1 Streak on Jeopardy 2 1 1 End of the streak 2 1 2 Effect of the streak 2 2 Jeopardy tournaments 2 3 Jeopardy staff 2 3 1 Consulting producer 2020 2022 2 3 2 Host 2021 present 2 4 Outside Jeopardy 2 4 1 Other game show appearances 2 4 2 Tuesday trivia emails 2 4 3 Omnibus podcast 2 4 4 LearnedLeague and online trivia 3 Controversies 3 1 Controversial tweets 3 2 2023 Writers Guild of America strike 4 Endorsements 5 Personal life 6 Recognition 7 Television 8 Bibliography 9 See also 10 References 11 External linksEarly life editKenneth Wayne Jennings III was born on May 23 1974 9 in Edmonds Washington a suburb of Seattle 10 11 His father was a lawyer employed overseas and Jennings spent 15 years growing up in South Korea and Singapore where his father worked 12 Upon returning to the United States Jennings attended the University of Washington Following two years as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints where he was assigned to serve in Madrid Spain Jennings transferred to Brigham Young University in 1996 One of his roommates at BYU was author Brandon Sanderson 13 He also played on the school s quizbowl team at one point serving as captain and graduated in 2000 with a double major in English and computer science 10 Career editStreak on Jeopardy edit Before 2003 Jeopardy contestants were limited to five consecutive wins At the beginning of the show s 20th season in 2003 the rules were changed to allow contestants to remain on the show as long as they continued to win 14 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 Jennings run began during Jeopardy s 20th season with the episode aired on June 2 2004 in which he unseated two time returning champion Jerry Harvey and continued into season 21 In that first episode Jennings entire winning streak nearly ended before it even began The Final Jeopardy answer was She s the first female track amp field athlete to win medals in five different events at a single Olympics Jennings responded with Who is Jones using only the last name of Marion Jones who was not stripped of her medals until December 2007 Host Alex Trebek said We will accept that in terms of female athletes there aren t that many If the response had not been accepted Jennings would have finished in third place and challenger Julia Lazarus would have won the game instead Jennings run was interrupted by the off season break July until September 2004 Kids Week the Tournament of Champions aired from September 20 2004 through October 1 2004 the 2004 United States presidential election aired on Tuesday November 2 2004 pushing his weeks of episodes to air from Wednesday to Saturday and the College Championship aired from November 10 2004 to November 23 2004 As a result he went the entire five months without a loss Jennings did not participate in the Tournament of Champions as invitations are extended only to champions 4 wins or more who have been defeated with the exception of the winner s of the College Championship End of the streak edit On November 30 2004 Jennings reign as Jeopardy champion ended when he lost his 75th game to challenger Nancy Zerg 15 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 16 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 the Double Jeopardy round The Final Jeopardy category was Business amp Industry and the clue was Most of this firm s 70 000 seasonal white collar employees work only four months a year Jennings appeared perplexed during the time allowed to write a response while Zerg finished her response quickly Zerg responded correctly with What is H amp 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 After his response was revealed to be incorrect the audience audibly gasped and Zerg appeared to be shocked after realizing that she won Jennings was awarded 2 000 for his second place finish which gave him a final total of 2 522 700 for his Jeopardy run Zerg whom Jennings called a formidable opponent finished in third place on the next show The audience gave a standing ovation in honor of both contestants and Alex Trebek called Zerg a giant killer as Jennings embraced her It took a span of 182 calendar days to broadcast Jennings 75 matches His losing episode can be seen on the 2005 DVD release of Jeopardy An Inside Look at America s Favorite Quiz Show released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Effect of the streak edit 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 17 In his book Brainiac Jennings says that the consistency of the original manager s timing had given an increasing advantage to continuing players and that the change made a noticeable difference in the second season that he was on the show At one point announcer Johnny Gilbert stopped announcing Jennings total wins during the show s opening citation needed On December 1 2004 the day after his defeat Jennings made 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 18 According to the Nielsen TV National People Meter Jeopardy s ratings were 22 percent 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 19 By the end of Jeopardy s 20th season several weeks later the show had surpassed sister program Wheel of Fortune in the ratings though Wheel still benefited from the streak in markets where Jeopardy is its lead in in the common scheduling tactic for both shows 20 Jeopardy tournaments edit nbsp Jennings in 2005 On December 28 2004 Sony announced a 15 week 75 show Jeopardy Ultimate Tournament of Champions 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 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 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 game shows Jennings has said that he is still happy with his second place finish From February 14 16 2011 Jeopardy s IBM Challenge featured the company s Watson against Jennings and Rutter in two matches played over three days the first man versus machine competition in the show s history 21 The winner of the competition was Watson winning 1 000 000 for two charities while Jennings was second and Rutter was third receiving 300 000 and 200 000 respectively Jennings and Rutter each pledged to donate half of their winnings to charity 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 22 The competition ended with Watson with 77 147 Jennings with 24 000 and Rutter with 21 600 23 Below his response during the Final Jeopardy round Jennings wrote on his screen I for one welcome our new computer overlords It was the first time Rutter had been defeated against any human player although the defeat is not on Rutter s Jeopardy official record as the competition was deemed an exhibition Jennings wrote about playing against Watson for Slate 24 In 2014 Jeopardy aired a special five week Jeopardy Battle of the Decades tournament Jennings made it to the finals along with Brad Rutter and Roger Craig Jennings placed second winning a 100 000 prize and Rutter won first place securing a 1 000 000 prize In the 2019 Jeopardy All Star Games with 18 former champions Jennings was one of six captains choosing 2015 Jeopardy Tournament of Champions runner up Matt Jackson and 2012 Jeopardy College Champion Monica Thieu who coincidentally eliminated Jennings in a 2016 episode of 500 Questions to complete his three person Team Ken 25 Team Ken finished second to the team captained by Rutter with Jennings winning 100 000 one third of the 300 000 second place prize 25 This brought his lifetime Jeopardy related winnings to 3 522 700 In January 2020 ABC aired the Jeopardy Greatest of All Time tournament between Jennings Rutter and James Holzhauer Jennings won the championship to be crowned with the Greatest of All Time title and a first place prize of 1 000 000 26 Jeopardy staff edit Consulting producer 2020 2022 edit In September 2020 Jennings signed on as a consulting producer of Jeopardy for the show s 37th season a job that included reading on air categories 27 which ended in the months following host Alex Trebek s death later in the season 28 Jennings held this role until the start of the show s 39th season citation needed Host 2021 present edit On October 29 2020 Alex Trebek taped his final episode of Jeopardy 29 Contingency plans were made for him to miss the next taping scheduled for November 9 10 2020 as he planned to have a surgery 30 Supervising producers Lisa Broffman and Rock Schmidt had named Ken Jennings the interim host for the taping and Jennings had a final conversation with Trebek days before the rehearsal was set to commence 31 The rehearsal was scheduled for November 8 2020 but was subsequently cancelled when Schmidt gave the staff the news that Trebek had died that day from stage four pancreatic cancer 30 On November 23 2020 following Alex Trebek s death it was announced that Jennings would host Jeopardy in the first of a series of guest hosts 32 33 His episodes aired from January 11 to February 19 2021 34 In September 2021 following Mike Richards departure early in the show s 38th season after various controversies came to light it was announced that Jennings along with actress Mayim Bialik would host the show for the remainder of the season with Jennings hosting duties exclusive to the daily syndicated series 3 35 In July 2022 it was announced that Jennings along with Bialik would split hosting duties full time beginning with the show s 39th season 36 37 38 39 40 In October 2022 Jennings appeared as a Clue Giver in the category A Long Run on TV with Ken Jennings during the Triple Jeopardy round on the third episode of Celebrity Jeopardy on ABC 41 In January 2023 it was announced that Jennings would host Jeopardy Masters a primetime tournament featuring six recent notable Jeopardy champions competing against each other in a Champions League style format on ABC 42 The program premiered on May 8 2023 43 Following Bialik s withdrawal from Jeopardy on May 11 2023 due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes the last 20 episodes of season 39 were hosted by Jennings 44 Five days later it was announced that Jennings would host the second season of Celebrity Jeopardy 45 In September of that year Jennings received a nomination for Outstanding Host For A Game Show at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards 4 In the wake of Bialik s departure Jennings became the permanent sole host of Jeopardy starting with the 40th season 46 47 Outside Jeopardy edit nbsp Jennings in 2008 Taking advantage of the notoriety of Jennings losing Final Jeopardy answer H amp R Block offered Jennings free tax planning and financial services for the rest of his life 48 H amp R Block senior vice president David Byers estimated that Jennings owed about 1 04 million in taxes on his winnings 49 50 Also BBDO created an advertisement for FedEx in the USA Today newspaper three days after his final game stating There s only one time FedEx has ever been the wrong answer and congratulating Jennings for his streak 51 In a 2011 Reddit AMA Jennings recalled how in 2004 the Democratic politicians Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid unsuccessfully asked Jennings to run for the United States Senate from Utah He commented That was when I realized the Democratic Party was f ed in 04 52 Jennings has written several books Brainiac Adventures in the Curious Competitive Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs details his experiences on Jeopardy and his research into trivia culture conducted after the completion of his run 53 Ken Jennings Trivia Almanac 8 888 Questions in 365 Days a hardcover book is a compilation of trivia questions with three categories and about 20 questions per day of the year 54 Maphead Charting the Wide Weird World of Geography Wonks explores the world of map and geography enthusiasts 55 Because I Said So is a humorous examination of the myths tales amp warnings every generation passes down to its kids 56 He also has written five books for his children s series Junior Genius Guides 57 Jennings also had a column in Mental Floss magazine called Six Degrees of Ken Jennings where readers submitted two wildly different things that Jennings had to connect in exactly six steps in the style of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game 58 The column ran from November 2005 59 to the September October 2010 issue 60 According to Variety 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 61 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 As of mid 2006 he was still shopping a potential game show titled Ken Jennings vs the Rest of the World 62 Jennings appeared on The Colbert Report on September 13 2006 During the interview Colbert discussed Jennings book Brainiac and mocked him for not knowing the number of pages in the book After Colbert coined a word to describe intellectual nerdiness poindexterity Jennings deliberated what the correct noun for poindexter was 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 63 Jennings also appeared twice on NPR s Wait Wait Don t Tell Me program In his February 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 home answering machine Jennings said This is the proudest moment of my game show life 64 On June 1 2013 he made his debut as a panelist on Wait Wait Don t Tell Me Jennings won the rookie division of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 2006 65 Jennings has written and edited literature and mythology questions for the National Academic Quiz Tournaments NAQT a quiz bowl organization 66 He has read questions as a moderator at the 2005 2006 and 2009 NAQT High School National Championship Tournaments in Chicago Jennings had a weekly trivia column Kennections in Parade magazine 67 In it five questions were posed whose answers were connected to a mystery topic which the readers had to guess Parade ceased the quiz in early 2015 and removed links to archived quizzes in March 2015 Kennections now appears in the online version of Mental Floss magazine 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 68 Jennings narrated the audiobook version of Alex Trebek s autobiography The Answer Is His rendition was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 63rd Grammy Awards 69 Other game show appearances edit 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 70 Jennings left the show with 714 29 his share of a 35 000 prize shared among 49 mob members He 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 three people had been married the most times Jennings answered King Henry VIII while the correct answer was Larry King It 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 It debuted on Game Show Network GSN on August 4 2007 and featured 16 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 71 that aired on October 10 2008 which held the possibility of exceeding Rutter s total game show winnings After winning 500 000 enough to surpass Rutter s total Jennings chose not to attempt the million dollar question which if answered incorrectly would ve resulted in him losing 475 000 and leaving with 25 000 As is customary on the show Jennings was then shown the question to see what would have happened and he ultimately provided the correct answer Jennings would have become the show s second million dollar winner had he decided to risk it 72 From 2008 to 2009 Jennings appeared on GSN on Fridays for the trivia game Stump the Master where home viewers submitted questions via the GSN website Four callers were put on hold and Jennings selected from one of the categories The caller for the category he picked came on the line and read the question If Jennings didn t answer or was incorrect the caller won 1 000 or more When Jennings was right the jackpot was increased by 1 000 All callers were given a small prize whether they participated on air or not nbsp Jennings in 2019 Jennings has appeared on multiple episodes of Doug Loves Movies hosted by Doug Benson and has won a few times He 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 and also taped a pilot for the proposed 2009 CBS revival of Pyramid titled Million Dollar Pyramid 73 74 Jennings appeared on Millionaire in 2014 as a contestant during Guinness World Records Edition themed week where he won 100 000 after deciding to walk away on his 250 000 question If he had gone for it Jennings would have been right and would have won 250 000 75 Jennings appeared on the second season premiere of 500 Questions on May 26 2016 76 and was eliminated on the fourth question by winter 2012 college champion Monica Thieu leaving with no winnings Jennings later teamed up with Thieu along with Matt Jackson in the Jeopardy All Star Games in 2019 Jennings appeared on an episode of midnight aired May 15 2017 during the fourth season which he won As a result Jennings served as the funniest person on the internet for May 16 2017 77 An announcement in April 2019 named Jennings as one of eight recurring Trivia Experts for the new Game Show Network program Best Ever Trivia Show hosted by Sherri Shepherd The show premiered at 4 00 p m ET on June 10 2019 78 Jennings was also one of the six trivia experts on Best Ever s successor Master Minds which premiered at 4 00 p m ET on April 6 2020 with Brooke Burns as the host 79 In November 2020 it was announced that Jennings would be one of the three chasers on the ABC revival of The Chase hosted by Sara Haines with Rutter and Holzhauer as the other chasers 80 joined by Mark Labbett in season 2 Jennings left after the second season 81 In May 2023 he competed against Mayim Bialik and Vanna White on an episode of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune 82 Jennings won 72 800 for the Equal Justice Initiative 83 Tuesday trivia emails edit Every Tuesday beginning on July 4 2006 Jennings sent out an email containing seven questions The seventh a question asking what several items have in common was designed to be Google resistant 84 Subscribers responded with the answers to all seven questions and the results are maintained on a scoreboard on Jennings blog 85 Every 10 weeks the respondent with the most seventh questions correct was awarded a signed copy of his newest book After 800 quizzes as of November 16 2021 due to an ever increasing amount of commitments related to Jeopardy book tours and simply starting to run out of material for the seventh question Jennings decided to discontinue this email 86 Omnibus podcast edit On September 7 2017 HowStuffWorks unveiled a new show entitled Omnibus co hosted by Jennings and John Roderick frontman of the indie rock band The Long Winters They pick topics they fear might be lost to history and discuss them 87 LearnedLeague and online trivia edit Jennings has been an active member of the trivia app FleetWit regularly playing in the live trivia races 88 As of March 2018 on average he had answered 89 percent of questions correctly and has won over 2 000 89 Jennings competed regularly in LearnedLeague under the name JenningsK 90 His last active season was LL85 May 2020 where he played in the A Rundle of the Laguna league and finished the season in 5th place 91 Controversies editControversial tweets edit Jennings is an active Twitter user and some of his tweets have been subjects of controversy On September 22 2014 Jennings received criticism after tweeting Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair 92 93 94 95 The tweet reignited controversy after resurfacing in 2020 which led to condemnation from noted disability rights activists such as Rebecca Cokley 96 On November 10 2015 Jennings was criticized when he tweeted a joke about the death of Daniel Fleetwood a lifelong Star Wars fan who died of cancer Fleetwood s dying wish was to see Star Wars The Force Awakens fearing he likely would not live to see the film when it opened in theaters in December 2015 An online campaign was started on his behalf and his wish was granted only days before he died Jennings said It can t be a good sign that every fan who has seen the new Star Wars movie died shortly thereafter 97 Jennings again faced controversy when on May 31 2017 he tweeted a joke involving Barron Trump the youngest child of former U S President Donald Trump After 11 year old Barron saw an image of Kathy Griffin holding a bloody mask modeled after his father he believed it was real and screamed Jennings wrote Barron Trump saw a very long necktie on a heap of expired deli meat in a dumpster He thought it was his dad amp his little heart is breaking 98 After the tweet garnered controversy Jennings said The joke doesn t mock Barron It mocks using him for political cover 99 In August 2018 he was criticized for his description of an elderly woman tweeting about her deceased son When she tweeted about her son s love for the 1980s television character ALF Jennings responded with This awful MAGA grandma is my favorite person on Twitter 100 In December 2020 Jennings offered an apology on Twitter for some of his past comments and subsequently deleted said comments 101 102 In January 2021 Jennings faced controversy again when his friend and podcast co host John Roderick posted a Twitter thread where he discussed preventing his nine year old daughter from eating until she learned to open a can of baked beans using a manual can opener which he approximated took six hours 103 104 105 The incident caused controversial past tweets to resurface in which Roderick made comments that were seen as using anti semitic homophobic racist and other derogatory language Jennings defended Roderick saying he was a loving and attentive dad who tells heightened for effect stories 106 105 107 The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2021 that Jennings was intended to be Alex Trebek s successor but his social media controversies hurt his standing with poor ratings from focus groups and Sony executives fearing his selection could cause backlash 108 109 110 2023 Writers Guild of America strike edit Main article 2023 Writers Guild of America strike In May 2023 the Writers Guild of America announced that its unionized writers would go on strike as part of negotiations largely related to increases in pay benefits and protections against artificial intelligence 111 Jennings co host on Jeopardy Mayim Bialik refused to participate in the show s final week of filming as a result 112 113 Jennings was reportedly brought in as the host for filming as a result of Bialik s decision crossing the Writers Guild of America West picket line 114 Endorsements editJennings agreed to a deal with Microsoft to promote its Encarta encyclopedia software which was later discontinued He is also engaged in speaking deals through the Massachusetts based speakers agency American Program Bureau 115 In 2005 Cingular Wireless now AT amp T featured Jennings in commercials portraying him as having lots of friends and family coming out of the woodwork once he began winning on Jeopardy 116 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 both correct and incorrect are recorded on the cards 117 Personal life editJennings and his wife Mindy have two children 10 118 He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints 119 During his Jeopardy winning streak Jennings lived in Salt Lake City and was a software engineer for CHG Healthcare Services a healthcare placement firm in Holladay Utah 120 He and his family later moved to Seattle 118 His youngest sister was adopted from Korea when his family lived there citation needed Recognition editOn March 3 2020 the Washington State Legislature approved Senate Resolution 8704 congratulating Jennings for his achievements on game shows 11 121 Television editYear Title Role Notes 2013 Marie Self Episode Meridith Baxter amp Michael Gross 2017 The Simpsons Ken Jennings voice Episode The Caper Chase 122 2022 Call Me Kat Self Episode Call Me Ken Jennings 123 2022 2023 The 100 000 Pyramid Self Celebrity Player Episode Ken Jennings vs Ross Mathews and RuPaul vs Carson KressleyEpisode Deon Cole vs D arcy Carden and Ken Jennings vs Mario Cantone 2022 present Celebrity Jeopardy Self Clue Giver Episode Quarterfinal 3 Constance Wu Ike Barinholtz and Jalen Rose Self Host Season 2 2023 Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Self Celebrity Contestant Episode Vanna White Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik Jeopardy Masters Self Host 10 episodesBibliography editJennings Ken 2023 100 Places to See After You Die A Travel Guide to the Afterlife New York Scribner ISBN 978 1 5011 3158 5 OCLC 1347430851 Jennings Ken 2018 Planet Funny How Comedy Took Over Our Culture New York Scribner ISBN 978 1 5011 0058 1 Jennings Ken 2016 Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides Dinosaurs New York Little Simon ISBN 978 1 4814 2956 6 Jennings Ken 2015 Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides Ancient Egypt New York Little Simon ISBN 978 1 4814 2952 8 Jennings Ken 2015 Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides The Human Body New York Little Simon ISBN 978 1 4814 0173 9 Jennings Ken 2014 Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides Outer Space New York Little Simon ISBN 978 1 4814 0170 8 Jennings Ken 2014 Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides U S Presidents New York Little Simon ISBN 978 1 4424 7332 4 Jennings Ken 2014 Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides Greek Mythology New York Little Simon ISBN 978 1 4424 7330 0 Jennings Ken 2014 Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides Maps and Geography New York Little Simon ISBN 978 1 4424 7328 7 Jennings Ken 2012 Because I Said So The Truth Behind the Myths Tales and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids New York Scribner ISBN 978 1 4516 5625 1 Jennings Ken 2011 Maphead Charting the Wide Weird World of Geography Wonks New York Scribner ISBN 978 1 4391 6717 5 Jennings Ken 2010 Colossal Book of Wordplay New York Puzzlewright ISBN 978 1 4027 6503 2 with Martin Gardner Jennings Ken 2008 Ken Jennings s Trivia Almanac 8 888 Questions in 365 Days New York Villard ISBN 978 0 345 49997 4 Jennings Ken 2006 Brainiac Adventures in the Curious Competitive Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs New York Villard ISBN 978 1 4000 6445 8 See also editList of notable Jeopardy contestants Strategies and skills of Jeopardy championsReferences edit Winters Charlene Renberg Winter 2005 Final Jeopardy BYU Magazine Provo Utah Brigham Young University Retrieved January 16 2020 Mayim Bialik Ken Jennings to fill in as Jeopardy hosts for rest of 2021 after Mike Richards exit Yahoo September 16 2021 Retrieved September 17 2021 a b Towers Andrea December 8 2021 Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik to continue hosting Jeopardy into 2022 Deadline Hollywood a b Hilary Lewis July 12 2023 Emmys 2023 List of Nominees The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved July 12 2023 Reilly Katie December 16 2023 Mayim Bialik Won t Return as Jeopardy Host AOL Retrieved December 18 2023 Ken Jennings Final Statistics Thejeopardyfan com The 300 Club The Jeopardy Fan Pedersen Erik November 18 2019 Jeopardy s All Time Top Money Winners To Face Off In Primetime Tourney Holzhauer Jennings amp Rutter Deadline Hollywood UPI Almanac for Saturday May 23 2020 United Press International May 23 2020 Archived from the original on June 10 2020 Retrieved November 25 2020 Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings in 1974 age 46 a b c About Ken Ken Jennings official website Archived from the original on November 13 2020 Retrieved July 15 2006 a b Senate Resolution 8704 PDF Washington State Legislature March 2020 Archived PDF from the original on March 9 2021 Retrieved January 11 2021 Our Attorneys Colter Jennings law firm September 27 2007 Archived from the original on September 27 2007 Retrieved February 9 2017 Jennings Ken December 11 2007 If you give me things I will plug them Jeopardy Premieres Milestone 20th Anniversary Season September 8 2003 Press release King World September 4 2003 Archived from the original on September 28 2007 Retrieved November 29 2006 J Archive Show 4657 aired 2004 11 30 J archive com January 30 2015 Retrieved February 9 2017 Ken Jennings Detailed Statistics Kenjenningsstatistics blogspot com Retrieved February 9 2017 Paquet Paul January 2005 Backstage with Ken Jennings TriviaHallofFame com Cornerstone Word Company Archived from the original on May 13 2006 Retrieved July 7 2006 Jeopardy Intro Ken Jennings Returns 12 1 04 YouTube Archived from the original on December 21 2021 Retrieved February 2 2021 JEOPARDY STREAK OVER Ken Jennings Loses in 75th Game Takes Home a Record Setting 2 520 700 Press release King World November 30 2004 Archived from the original on September 28 2007 Retrieved March 7 2007 Speight Kimberly August 4 2004 Jeopardy Caps Season on Winning Streak Archived from the original on October 13 2004 Retrieved November 29 2006 PBS NOVA Smartest Machine on Earth PBS February 14 2011 Retrieved February 14 2011 IBM s Watson Computing System to Challenge All Time Greatest Jeopardy Champions Jeopardy Sony Pictures Digital Inc December 14 2010 Archived from the original on December 17 2010 Retrieved December 15 2010 Markoff John December 16 2010 On Jeopardy Watson s a Natural The New York Times Retrieved December 16 2010 My Puny Human Brain Slate February 16 2011 Retrieved February 18 2011 a b Swift Andy March 19 2019 Jeopardy Crowns a Winning Team in the First Ever All Star Games TVLine Retrieved April 22 2019 Aquilina Tyler January 14 2020 It s official Ken Jennings is the greatest Jeopardy contestant of all time Entertainment Weekly Retrieved January 15 2020 Aquilina Tyler September 3 2020 Jeopardy announces fall premiere date Ken Jennings joining show as producer Entertainment Weekly Retrieved September 3 2020 McNear Claire August 18 2021 A Smile with Sharp Teeth Mike Richards s Rise to Jeopardy Host Sparks Questions About His Past The Ringer Retrieved March 31 2023 Dugan Carmel November 8 2020 Alex Trebek Revered Host of Jeopardy for 36 Years Dies at 80 Variety Retrieved February 5 2024 a b Cohen Buzzy August 2 2023 So Long Everybody This is Jeopardy The Story of America s Favorite Quiz Show Podcast Sony Music Entertainment via Apple Podcasts Ivie Devon October 13 2022 Ken Jennings Ascends the Podium The Jeopardy co host and its greatest champion settles into his dream job Vulture Retrieved February 5 2024 Jeopardy Returns to Studio Nov 30 With Interim Host Jeopardy com November 23 2020 Archived from the original on October 10 2022 Retrieved November 23 2020 Ausiello Michael November 23 2020 Jeopardy Ken Jennings to Succeed the Late Alex Trebek as First Guest Host TVLine Retrieved November 23 2020 Jeopardy Guest Host Schedule Jeopardy com February 15 2021 Archived from the original on October 26 2022 Retrieved March 31 2023 Moreau Jordan September 16 2021 Mayim Bialik Ken Jennings to Host Jeopardy Through 2021 After Mike Richards Exit Variety Retrieved September 16 2021 Andreeva Nellie July 27 2022 Jeopardy Mayim Bialik amp Ken Jennings Close Deals To Return Season 39 Hosting Schedule Revealed Deadline Hollywood Retrieved July 27 2022 Steinberg Brian July 27 2022 Mayim Bialik Ken Jennings to Host Expanded Jeopardy Franchise Variety Retrieved July 27 2022 Mayim Bialik Ken Jennings to split Jeopardy host job permanently CBS News July 28 2022 Retrieved March 31 2023 Goldberg Lesley July 27 2022 Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings Officially Set as Permanent Jeopardy Hosts The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved March 31 2023 A Note From Jeopardy EP Michael Davies New Hosts and New Initiatives Jeopardy com Retrieved March 31 2023 Primetime Celebrity Jeopardy game 3 Sunday October 9 2022 J Archive October 10 2022 Retrieved April 4 2023 Porter Rick January 11 2023 ABC Adds Jeopardy Masters to Unscripted Slate The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved January 12 2023 Rouse Isaac March 24 2023 ABC Sets Summer 2023 Premiere Dates Including Jeopardy Masters amp The Bachelorette TV Insider Retrieved March 31 2023 Peter White May 11 2023 Jeopardy Mayim Bialik Leaves Final Week Of Filming In Solidarity With Writers But Production Continues Deadline Hollywood Retrieved May 24 2023 White Peter May 16 2023 Ken Jennings To Host Celebrity Jeopardy As ABC Sets Premiere Dates For Gameshows Shark Tank amp AFV Deadline Hollywood Retrieved August 29 2023 Murphy J Kim December 16 2023 Mayim Bialik Won t Return as Jeopardy Host Variety Retrieved December 16 2023 White Peter December 16 2023 Mayim Bialik Out As Jeopardy Host Deadline Retrieved December 16 2023 Q What is H amp R Block A The Company You Turn to for Tax and Financial Assistance Press release H amp R Block November 30 2004 Retrieved July 7 2006 Roth Stephen November 30 2004 Block offers Jeopardy champ tax services for life Kansas City Business Journal American City Business Journals Retrieved July 20 2014 Jeopardy streak comes to end MSNBC Associated Press December 1 2004 Retrieved July 20 2014 Sherman Gabriel December 13 2004 Champion Asks What Is FedEx And BBDO Scrambles to Answer Observer Retrieved October 18 2021 Krueger Alyson March 4 2011 Ken Jennings Democrats Tried To Recruit Me For Senate Run The Huffington Post Retrieved February 13 2021 Jennings Ken 2006 Brainiac Adventures in the Curious Competitive Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs Random House ISBN 1 4000 6445 7 2008 Villard ISBN 978 0 345 49997 4 Maphead C SPAN Video Library September 20 2011 Retrieved February 25 2012 2011 Scribner ISBN 1 4391 6717 6 2012 Scribner ISBN 978 1 4516 5625 1 ebook ISBN 978 1 4516 5627 5 Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides Retrieved March 3 2015 mental floss media kit PDF Press release Mental Floss LLC Archived from the original PDF on July 9 2006 Retrieved July 20 2006 Nov Dec 2005 table of contents for mental floss magazine Archived September 26 2008 at the Wayback Machine Accessed October 14 2008 Jennings Ken December 31 2010 Another year over a new one just begun ken jennings com Retrieved January 12 2011 Martin Denise May 24 2005 Trivia titan gets series Variety Retrieved November 29 2006 Jennings Ken 2006 FAQ Life A T After Trebek Ken Jennings official website Retrieved June 29 2006 The Colbert Report September 13 2006 Ken Jennings Comedy Central September 13 2006 Retrieved December 6 2021 Wait Wait Don t Tell Me Npr org Retrieved February 9 2017 Crossed Up by the K in Connecticut Crosswordtournament com Retrieved February 12 2007 National Academic Quiz Tournaments LLC Archived from the original on April 12 2008 Kennections Play Trivia Puzzles by Ken Jennings Retrieved June 3 2014 Geier Thom Jensen Jeff Jordan Tina Lyons Margaret Markovitz Adam Nashawaty Chris Pastorek Whitney Rice Lynette Rottenberg Josh Schwartz Missy Slezak Michael Snierson Dan Stack Tim Stroup Kate Tucker Ken Vary Adam B Vozick Levinson Simon Ward Kate December 11 2009 THE 100 Greatest Movies TV Shows Albums Books Characters Scenes Episodes Songs Dresses Music Videos and Trends That Entertained Us Over the Past 10 Years Entertainment Weekly 1079 1080 74 84 Grammy Awards Nominations The Complete List Variety November 20 2019 Retrieved November 20 2019 Ken Jennings Confessions of a Trivial Mind View topic Roulette Ken and 1 vs 100 www ken jennings com 10 Biggest American Game Show Winners VIDEO TV Insider November 27 2019 Retrieved June 12 2020 He also competed on Millionaire 1 vs 100 Grand Slam and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader Meet Super Champ Of Game Shows Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader Full Episode S03E07 retrieved April 14 2023 Set Report from The 1 000 000 Pyramid Buzzerblog com June 25 2009 Archived from the original on March 24 2016 Retrieved January 10 2023 Ken Jennings Blog Ken jennings com Retrieved February 9 2017 Bibel Sara October 27 2014 Game Show Legend Ken Jennings to Play Who Wants to be a Millionaire on Friday November 14 amp Monday November 17 TV by the Numbers Zap2it Archived from the original on October 29 2014 Retrieved October 27 2014 Ken Jennings on 500 Questions Jeopardy Champ Joins ABC Game 500 Questions May 2 2016 midnight with Chris Hardwick May 15 2017 FirstDraftCartoons Comedy Central May 16 2017 Retrieved May 17 2017 Ken Jennings Joins Best Ever Trivia Show Broadway World Retrieved May 22 2019 Jeopardy Champion Ken Jennings to Appear on Game Show Network Show Master Minds Outsider Madison Miller March 3 2021 Retrieved March 3 2021 Ken Jennings and other Jeopardy greats are reuniting for a new game show Deseret Lottie Elizabeth Johnson November 3 2020 Retrieved November 3 2020 Mitovich Matt March 15 2022 The Chase Shakes Up Its Roster of Chasers Who s In Who s Out as ABC Sets Upcoming Reality Slate TVLine Retrieved March 15 2022 Philiana Ng April 28 2023 Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Ken Jennings Steals Answer From Jeopardy Co Host Mayim Bialik Exclusive Entertainment Tonight Retrieved May 6 2023 Gates Kaitlin May 11 2023 Pat Sajak s daughter filled in for Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune KGTV Archived from the original on May 13 2023 Retrieved May 11 2023 Ken Jennings Blog Retrieved February 12 2015 Tuesday Trivia Scoreboard Ken jennings com Announcement of Tuesday Trivia discontinuation Podcasting Giant HowStuffWorks Announces Four New Shows Expansion of Genres and Fresh Talent September 7 2017 To the Fleetest Ken Jennings Blog Retrieved March 6 2018 Ken Jennings Archived February 24 2020 at the Wayback Machine FleetWit website Retrieved March 6 2018 LL Profile JenningsK Learnedleague com Retrieved February 9 2017 LL85 Rundle A Laguna LearnedLeague com Retrieved November 15 2022 Ledbetter Carly September 22 2014 Ken Jennings Of Jeopardy Fame Tweets Awful Wheelchair Joke The Huffington Post Retrieved December 26 2014 Rothkopf Joanna September 22 2014 Ugh Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings tweets super offensive wheelchair joke Salon Retrieved December 26 2014 Weisman Aly September 23 2014 Jeopardy Champ Ken Jennings Under Fire For Insensitive Wheelchair Tweet Business Insider Retrieved December 26 2014 Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings shocks Twitter followers with offensive post The Atlanta Journal Constitution September 24 2014 Retrieved December 26 2014 Why This 4 Year Old Tweet From Ken Jennings Is Causing BacklashTheWrap November 24 2020 Retrieved October 21 2021 Magilo Tony November 11 2015 Jeopardy Legend Ken Jennings Booed for Disgusting Joke About Dead Star Wars Fan Daniel Fleetwood The Wrap Retrieved November 11 2015 Jeopardy s Ken Jennings mocks Barron Trump on Twitter over Kathy Griffin s gory head photo AOL June 1 2017 Archived from the original on June 20 2017 Retrieved June 19 2017 Shepherd Ken May 31 2017 Ken Jennings Jeopardy champion mocks Barron Trump on Twitter The Washington Times Retrieved May 31 2017 Rantz Jason August 7 2018 Jeopardy star Ken Jennings mocks mom who lost disabled son mynorthwest com Retrieved August 8 2018 France Lisa Respers December 31 2020 Ken Jennings of Jeopardy apologizes for insensitive tweets CNN Retrieved December 31 2020 Perez Lexy December 30 2020 Ken Jennings Apologizes for Unartful and Unsensitive Past Tweets The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved February 6 2024 Welk Brian Rossi Rosemary January 3 2021 Bean Dad Makes His 9 Year Old Struggle to Open Can of Beans for 6 Hours Infuriates Twitter Self Absorbed A Hat The Wrap Retrieved January 3 2021 Rettig James January 3 2021 Long Winters John Roderick Dubbed Bean Dad After Viral Tweet About His Daughter Stereogum Retrieved January 3 2021 a b Outcry as bean dad forces hungry child to open tin can BBC News January 4 2021 Retrieved January 5 2021 Nordyke Kimberly January 3 2021 Ken Jennings Defends Co Podcaster John Roderick Amid Bean Dad Controversy The Hollywood Reporter Laviola Erin January 3 2021 John Roderick Bean Dad 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know Heavy Retrieved January 3 2021 Flint Joe Safdar Khadeeja August 27 2021 How the Jeopardy Host Succession Plan Went Sideways The Wall Street Journal Covington Abigail August 29 2021 Ken Jenning s Problematic Past Tweets Cost Him the Jeopardy Hosting Job Esquire Tenreyro Tatiana August 27 2021 Ken Jennings problematic tweets reportedly cost him the Jeopardy job The A V Club Isidore Chris Yurkevich Vanessa April 18 2023 Writers strike looms after members vote to shut down film and TV production CNN Business Archived from the original on April 17 2023 Retrieved May 2 2023 White Peter May 11 2023 Jeopardy Mayim Bialik Leaves Final Week Of Filming In Solidarity With Writers But Production Continues Deadline Hollywood Retrieved May 25 2023 Bloch Emily May 11 2023 Mayim Bialik leaves Jeopardy early in solidarity with writers strike here s what it means for the show The Philadelphia Inquirer Retrieved May 25 2023 Bradley Laura May 11 2023 Ken Jennings Crosses the Picket Line to Keep Jeopardy Running The Daily Beast Retrieved May 25 2023 American Program Bureau Archived from the original on March 12 2005 AdAge Ken Jennings Makes Even More Money February 11 2005 Can You Beat Ken entry BoardGameGeek website Retrieved January 23 2014 a b Yahr Emily October 31 2022 Ken Jennings broke Jeopardy in 2004 In 2022 he helped save it The Washington Post Retrieved June 25 2023 Kennedy Randy December 1 2004 Jeopardy Whiz Ken Jennings Loses The New York Times CHG Healthcare Services Announces June 26 Ribbon Cutting Honored Guests to include Utah Gov Huntsman Holladay Mayor Webb and Utah business leaders PDF CHG Healthcare Services Archived from the original PDF on February 3 2010 Retrieved July 26 2019 Jennings Ken kenjennings March 3 2020 SR 8704 has passed Tweet Archived from the original on November 25 2020 via Twitter Did You Catch this Simpsons Easter Egg Jeopardy October 9 2017 Retrieved December 23 2023 Johnson Lottie Elizabeth September 30 2022 Ken Jennings just made his sitcom debut Deseret News Retrieved December 23 2023 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ken Jennings Official website nbsp Omnibus podcast web site Jennings February 2013 TED talk video Watson Jeopardy and me the obsolete know it all Archived February 27 2014 at the Wayback Machine Ken Jennings at IMDb 2006 IMNO Interview with Ken Jennings Media offices Preceded byPosition created preceded by Alex Trebek as Host of Jeopardy Guest host of Jeopardy January 11 February 19 2021 Succeeded byMike Richards Preceded byMike Richards Host of Jeopardy rotating with Mayim Bialik until December 16 2023 November 8 2021 present Succeeded byIncumbent Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Ken Jennings amp oldid 1219894331, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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