Posted on 07/07/2004 4:13:17 PM PDT by ecurbh
~snip~
But the real TV story this week has to be the undisputed 25-game reign of Jeopardy! supercontestant Ken Jennings. As of yesterday, the 30-year-old software engineer from Salt Lake City had won a total of $788,960, beating the previous record-holder, Tom Walsh, by a margin of over $600,000. Granted, this unprecedented victory streak was also made possible by this season's change in Jeopardy! rules—the term limits have been lifted, as it were, so that the run of a winning contestants may continue indefinitely, instead of being stopped after five consecutive games. But Ken is no mere beneficiary of this loophole in Jeopardy! bylaws; self-deprecating and sweet, the blond, elfin Jennings has host Alex Trebek wrapped around his fast-on-the-buzzer finger. (One evening, the bemused host opened with, "Welcome to the Alex and Ken show," and David Letterman has an ongoing gag in which he speculates that a lovestruck Trebek is helping Jennings cheat.) KenJen has turned the Culver City set into his own private fiefdom.
Watching Ken Jennings play is like witnessing any great athlete in top form: He's the Michael Jordan of trivia, the Seabiscuit of geekdom. Note his systematic habit of moving down the categories vertically, one by one, rather than skipping around the board. His nearly preternatural ability to land on the hidden Daily Doubles. His obscure betting tactics, which, as near as I can divine, are inspired by an obsessive-compulsive need to end each day's winnings with a round figure. His habit of adding some thematic je ne sais quoi to his answers (which, this being Jeopardy!, are of course phrased as questions.) If the topic is a foreign country, he'll answer in that country's accent, and in answer to one clue about hip-hop music, the ultra-white Ken memorably responded, "What is rap, yo?" Like a hot-dogging ball player insisting on his special end-zone touchdown dance, Jennings will no doubt take heat from some viewers for these stylistic quirks, but what the hell? It's show business, of a sort, and KenJen's antics have once again made Jeopardy!—which I hadn't watched regularly since matching wits with my Dad in high school—required viewing.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.msn.com ...
He won...big time. Edned up with $40,000 Second place had only around 7k I believe.
;)
Drat, I just saw a spoiler about tonight's show. May still watch anyway, though.
Did Ken win?
Ken Bump. He still looks fresh. And overwhelmed that he's doing so well. "whew!"
My Gosh...did you see this guy last night???? My husband is seriously convinced he's an alien (He kinda looks like one, don't ya think?) and that the next six weeks he's going back to the Mother Ship for programming updates.
I agree with your husband.
He's in control of the board. Of course he's going to land on the doubles. Duh.
It's just not knowing everything about every subject, but it's accessing that information in three seconds and beating everyone to the buzzer. We've watched every single episode he's been on and frankly, there's no other explanation.
I think he won $75K.
That would be $75K on 7/23/04.
He did?!?! Holy moly, I missed the show last night and hadn't heard that.
But, "He'll be back".
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