Ken Jennings

Kenneth Wayne Jennings III (born May 23, 1974)  is an American television game show host and is the highest money earning contestant on the American television game show Jeopardy!. He won a total of 74 times, earning $2,522,700.  His winning streak lasted from June 2, 2004 through November 30, 2004.  He lost after that time to a player named Nancy Zerg, who lost within a day to Katie Fitzgerald.  He was brought back to appear in the final three games of the show's Ultimate Tournament of Champions. In the tournament, he lost to Brad Rutter, who became the highest money winner on Jeopardy!.

According to the introduction given at the start of the show, Jennings is a "Software Engineer from Salt Lake City, Utah". His highest one day total was a record $75,000, which was later broken by Roger Craig in 2010.  Jennings is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormon.

In February 2005, Ken started appearing in Cingular commercials as himself.

In October 2008, Jennings appeared on an episode of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. He won $500,000, making him the highest winner in game show history once again.

In February 2011, Jennings, along with Rutter, competed in the "IBM Challenge" against an artificial intelligence computer named Watson. Jennings placed second, losing to Watson. He won half of a $300,000 prize; with the other half going to charity.

In the spring of 2014, Jennings and Rutter competed in the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades tournament.  They faced off in the finals alongside Roger Craig.  Rutter won the tournament with the $1,000,000 top prize, reclaiming the game show record from Jennings.

In January 2020, Jennings beat Rutter and James Holzhauer in Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time, claiming the $1,000,000 first place prize.

During Season 37 of Jeopardy!, Jennings became a consulting producer and records video clues.  In January 2021, he became a guest host after the death of longtime host Alex Trebek.  And during the show's 38th Season, Jennings and Mayim Bialik are co-hosting the show after Mike Richards resigned. They continued to co-host until Season 40 when Jennings was named the sole permanent host.

References

Other websites

 Omnibus podcast web site
 Jennings' February 2013 TED talk (video), "Watson, Jeopardy, and me, the obsolete know-it-all" 

 2006 IMNO Interview with Ken Jennings

Category:1974 births
Category:21st-century writers
Category:American game show hosts
Category:Living people
Category:Jeopardy!
Category:American bloggers
Category:American software engineers
Category:Writers from Seattle
Category:People from Seattle