Posted on 07/13/2004 9:23:48 PM PDT by ecurbh
Television's seemingly unbeatable answer man — or question man — has passed the $1 million mark on "Jeopardy!" Ken Jennings, the whip-smart software engineer from Salt Lake City, won his 30th straight contest on the syndicated game show, in an episode televised Tuesday. That brought his earnings to $1,004,960.
He's long since blown past the previous record for a "Jeopardy!" contestant, excluding special tournaments. Tom Walsh of Washington, D.C., set that record of $184,900 over seven days last winter.
(Excerpt) Read more at nynewsday.com ...
This guy is amazing! I'm shocked at his broad range of knowledge...however he was stumped on the Willie Nelson question today :-) I guess his expertise doesn't extend to Country music.
Either he is the grand master of trivia, or he's Charles Van Doren redux.
Bingo!!
He's the perfect winner too. Very likeable!
I agree, he's enjoyable to watch. Saw his $1 million win tonight, pretty amazing.
and the dolts he plays against....they sit on their hands the entire game...
I think they wanted a big winner to boost their image, and selected idiots for the guy to play against...
I think "kenny" is reading the question faster than the Alex can read them outloud, and then "kenny" buzzes in first, many times he is just taking good guesses...
I smelled a rat when they asked him at least three questions reguarding Salt Lake .....
I have stopped watching a good portion of the show....
when it comes to final jeopardy, and the one contestant has no money and the other one has like about $400.00, and "kenny" has 30 thousand, that is not entertainment nor exciting....
For me, he's the real deal!
Did you see how he dressed last night? It clearly portrayed his inner self. KEN IS A NAZI!
Incredible. I would love to view tapes of his shows with him present so I could ask him, "How did you know that? When did you learn it?". Too many times I find myself thinking that he knows too many things that I have never even heard of.
From the linked article, Jennings was a member of the BYU College Bowl Team and is active in editing literature quiz questions. He described on a recent show using flash cards to learn mixed-drink recipes. He evidently gets a lot of practice learning facts.
Oh, stop it. Fercryinoutloud. The guy is a trivia buff and has a background in these sorts of "knowledge bowls". He just happens to be damned good at what he does. You also forget that is was only recently that Jeopardy! decided to let winners just......keep going; NOT end at five wins. Who knows how many other previous winners could have continued on and for how long (anyone here remember young "Chuck" from a few years ago??? Kid was awesome....).
No more Jeopardy! conspiracy theories, already.
From what I had read he works for a trivia company producing questions for collegiate contests! Quite the advantage at work..
I don't think he's practicing... he already seems to know the facts... and the questions!
Almost time for showtime.
Is it possible that he is still winning, and is home for a break before the next taping?
Now that the rules have changed, I think the show should invite back all of the 5 game winners to see how far they can go.
I been watching Jeopardy since Art Fleming. And listened to a talk show he did on KMOX for a bit. Late Sunday nights as I recall.
Art was the man!
Unless Stephen Hawkins becomes a contestant, Ken may be there awhile!
My Jeopardy watching dates back to the Art Fleming days also. I didn't know that he had a talk show, but I lived in NYC back then.
And all the questions would have to revolve around physics and cosmology.
Now, I rarely watch the show anymore. Somehow all the fun goes out of it once you've had your shot and lost. So I haven't seen this guy, but I will say this: there's a definite rhythm to the show and to working the buzzer, and the more practice you get, the better you are. Here's how the routine goes: the question is revealed and is clearly legible by the contestants. Alex reads the question out loud. The instant he is done reading a guy offscreen pushes a button that unlocks the buzzers. Buzz in before that, and you're locked out for something like 2 seconds. It took me a couple of minutes to get the rhythm and then I started to dominate. The other thing I realized is that all three contestants know the answers to probably 90% of the questions, so the whole show comes down to buzzer control.
Now, here's the shocking secret of "Jeopardy": Alex blows the question reading a couple of times per show. He mispronounces or fumbles or something. What they do then is have him re-record the questions during the commercial breaks (the shows are taped real-time). Notice that you never see Alex read the question.
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