'Jeopardy' Champ Ken Jennings Blasts Show

AP ^ | 7-25-2006

[Cagey]

NEW YORK (AP) - "Jeopardy!" ace Ken Jennings, who won $2.5 million during his 74-game winning streak, has a few unkind words to say about the show - and dapper host Alex Trebek.

"I know, I know, the old folks love him," Jennings writes in a recent posting, titled "Dear Jeopardy!" on his Web site.

"Nobody knows he died in that fiery truck crash a few years back and was immediately replaced with the Trebektron 4000 (I see your engineers still can't get the mustache right, by the way)."

Jennings also takes aim at the show's "effete, left-coast" categories and "same-old" format.

"You're like the Dorian Gray of syndication," he says. "You seem to think 'change' means replacing a blue polyethylene backdrop with a slightly different shade of blue polyethylene backdrop every presidential election or so."

A call by The Associated Press to "Jeopardy!" spokesman Jeff Ritter was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Jennings, a software engineer from Salt Lake City, snagged 74 wins on "Jeopardy!" in 2004 before he was beaten by challenger Nancy Zerg.

Trebek, 66, has hosted the show since 1984. In a "correction" posted Monday on his Web site, Jennings offers an apology of sorts.

"We regret the insinuation that Mr. Alex Trebek is a robot, and has been since 2004. Mr. Trebek's robotic frame does still contain some organic parts, many harvested from patriotic Canadian schoolchildren, so this technically makes him a 'cyborg,' not a 'robot.'"

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[Cagey]

Software developer Ken Jennings from Salt Lake City, Utah, right, poses for a photo with Jeopardy host Alex Trebek on the set of the show in this July 13, 2004,file photo taken in Culver City, Calif

[Cagey]

"I'll take famous nerds for a thousand, Alex."

[digger48]

Dang! My opinion of this guy just went up a notch.

(but nobody is THAT friggin smart)

[Just A Nobody]

I loved Ken Jennings! Have hardly watched the show since.

[digger48]

...not to mention what I've done to Trebek's mother ....

[bwteim]

Here's his rant

http://ken-jennings.com/blog/dearjeopardy.html

[starfish923]

Trebek IS the show as far as Trebek is concerned.

The only difference from 20 years ago is the show's continual, on-going struggle to get/keep women and minority champs.

[MikefromOhio]

So we meet again TREBEK!!

[RFC_Gal]

"I'll take people who blew 2 million dollars in a few years and now need more money for 1,000 Alex."

[Cagey]

Oh man! Hahahahaha! Money has not been the cure for this fruitcake.

I especially like his sign off:

Love,

Ken

XOXOXO

[jocon307]

Ken Jennings calling someone"robotic"? Kettle meet pot.

[trumandogz]

From Jennings Blog:

First up, the categories. Maybe when Art Fleming was alive, America just couldn’t get enough clues about “Botany” and “Ballet” and “The Renaissance,” but come on. Does every freaking category have to be some effete left-coast crap nobody’s heard of, like “Opera,” or, um, “U.S. History” or whatever? I mean, wake me up when you come up with something that middle America actually cares about. I think it would rule if, just one time, Alex had to read off a board like:

PlayStation
The Arby’s 5-for-$5.95 Value Menu
Reality TV
Men’s Magazines
Skanks from Reality TV Who Got Naked in Men’s Magazines
Potpourri

He is smart and funny.

[bwteim]

"Money has not been the cure for this fruitcake."

A Claxton special


"Ken currently lives outside Seattle, Washington, with his wife Mindy, his three-year-old son Dylan, and a deeply unstable Labrador retriever named Banjo."

Banjo may be the only stable one in the family Unit.

http://www.ken-jennings.com/

[martin_fierro]

Favorite. Jeopardy. Moment. Ever.

[ecurbh]

Ping!

[Stone Mountain]

Real classy. Gee, if he had so much of a problem with the show, why did he sign up to be a contestant?

[Cagey]

LOL!

I missed that one and I didn't miss too many of the "Ken Jennings" contests. I prayed nightly someone would beat him and make him vanish. God finally sent Nancy Zerg.

[trumandogz]

Does every freaking category have to be some effete left-coast crap nobody’s heard of, like “Opera,” or, um, “U.S. History” or whatever?

That is Classic!

[lainie]

Heh! I saw it before the lamestream media did. nyah nyah to them. :)

[scrabblehack]

I thought it was satire the first time I saw it -- but I guess it's real...