Will there ever be another Jeopardy! champion as great as Ken Jennings

[jstnrgrs]

[jstnrgrs]

It only took about a year from the time that they removed the cap on number of wins allowed for Ken to come along. I think it is only a matter of time before someone else comes along.

[PoBoy321]

I think that there have probably been players whose run would have lasted longer than Jennings' if the cap had never been there in the first place.

[fsuplayer]

did he get knocked out?

[jasonHoldEm]

There will be a 100 day champ within 5 years.

[rusty JEDI]

He got knocked out on bad luck alone.

2 double jeopardy questions he risked and lost $4800. If he gets 1 of those right you can add $9600 to his total and he is out of reach come final jeopardy time.

rJ

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
He got knocked out on bad luck alone.

2 double jeopardy questions he risked and lost $4800. If he gets 1 of those right you can add $9600 to his total and he is out of reach come final jeopardy time.


[/ QUOTE ]

When you don't know the question to the answer, it's not bad luck.

There are lots of records in sports which have been thought to be completely unbreakable. Yet, they get broken anyway. Cal Ripken's consecutive game streak comes to mind.

[rusty JEDI]

I am considering it bad luck, because im guessing that he is over 80% on daily doubles. So for him to get both wrong on the one day someone else actually made it over $3000 is unlucky. Add in the % of times he actually missed the final jeopardy aswell and i call it bad luck.

rJ

[ThaSaltCracka]

If you lose a hand when you were an 80% favorite on the flop, is that bad luck? No, its called statistics. There is no such thing as luck.

[jakethebake]

Who the hell is Ken Jennings?

[ThaSaltCracka]

is anyone else as happy as me that he is gone? I really didn't like watching the show because of him. Not because he won so much, but because he was so annoying.

[JustPlayingSmart]

I agree that he was very annoying.

I didn't see the episode, but is it possible that he just got tired of winning and lost on purpose? My brother watched the show, and told me about the daily doubles and final jeopardy, and I agree that he easily could have not known the answers.

I wonder about this because my grandma always told me about some dude on Tic-Tac-Doe who won like $1M and then lost. She told me she was sure he got tired of winning and lost on purpose. Whether that's true or not I don't know, but when I saw Jenning's run I thought his eventual loss might be something like this.

I also think it's unfair to rule him the greatest Jeopardy champion ever when there could easily have been past 5 time champions who would have made it as long or longer.

[ThaSaltCracka]

no, he didn't throw the game, he flat out didn't know the answers to the daily doubles he missed, you could tell, plus they were hard too, I didn't even know them!

The final jeoperdy question I knew though, only because Cubswin figured it out /images/graemlins/grin.gif, Ken's guess of FedEx wasn't a terrible guess, he may have thought "Holiday season!", to bad FedEx has a [censored] load more employees than what the question asked. I am really glad that he lost because he didn't know the answers to some questions, as opposed to him losing because someone knew more stuff than him, makes it sweeter in my book.

[Victor]

[ QUOTE ]
I didn't see the episode, but is it possible that he just got tired of winning and lost on purpose?

[/ QUOTE ]

That was my impression of the episode. As far as the daily doubles go, those seemed to be tough questions. But the final question was hella easy and his guess of fedex was absolutely atrocious. Lets see, what industry works its as off for 4 monthes every year and chills out the rest?

Come on, for someone who has proven he can make great connections to not pick a tax firm is extremely suspicious.

[ThaSaltCracka]

dude, you could tell he was getting agitated every time he missed a daily double, he would look down closely at the scores and go to the hard questions. He looked like he was trying to win, but it could be that he threw the final jeoperdy question, but why would he? There is freakin money on the line.

[PhatTBoll]

[ QUOTE ]
Come on, for someone who has proven he can make great connections to not pick a tax firm is extremely suspicious.

[/ QUOTE ]

He said later in an interview that he has always prepared his own taxes. Also, business and corporations type categories were never his strongest suit.

[ThaSaltCracka]

did anyone see at the end of the show, Alex Trebek said "Look Ken, the audience is paying you tribute." I wanted to shoot Alex, no one is paying Ken tribute, he is some nerd who knows a lot of useless info, don't put him on a pedestal.

[JustPlayingSmart]

[ QUOTE ]
He looked like he was trying to win, but it could be that he threw the final jeoperdy question, but why would he? There is freakin money on the line.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Jeopardy is a high-stress job. $2.5M is a lot of dough for most people. The combination of those two could have easily caused him to lose on purpose.

[Victor]

[ QUOTE ]
He said later in an interview that he has always prepared his own taxes. Also, business and corporations type categories were never his strongest suit.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, perhaps I am comparing him to myself then. I have always done my taxes, as has my dad and I am very young (23). Also, my 2 friends in the room with me have always filed independently and are not business/finance oriented (I am an engineer.) I figured that since we all knew the answer easily that something fishy was going on.

[TorontoCFE]

It seems a pretty easy way to spend a day a week.
If he averaged 20k a show and they tape 5 shows a day, 100k/wk as a part-time job is enough to put up with the trip to LA every week.
Once he reached the 2.5m, I would say there was no real pressure any more.
As boring as it may become, I think its still relatively easy money.

[TorontoCFE]

There will be another long run - past champs could have done the same under the current rules.

The thing is, knowing the answers is not the hardest part - it is being quick to buzz in. Presumably, one would get better / in more of a grove as you play more games so if you are close to the challengers in skill level, then your extra practice will get you more opportunities to answer correctly and give you an edge to keepo winning.

[Six_of_One]

[ QUOTE ]


I think Jeopardy is a high-stress job. $2.5M is a lot of dough for most people. The combination of those two could have easily caused him to lose on purpose.

[/ QUOTE ]

No offense, but I've seldom read anything as dumb as this. Lose on purpose!?!? Sure, why don't I just walk away with $1.5 million (after taxes) rather than try to make $30,000 a day doing something fun that takes about a half hour.

[Blarg]

I sense a lot of sour grapes from frustrated nerds here, or from anti-nerds.

Ken's a nerd who made good, like Bill Gates in a way. More power to him. It's nice when someone gets a little acclaim for being bright. God forbid anyone be admired for something besides throwing a ball or singing a song.

[jstnrgrs]

He actually got knocked out on his own bad decisions. If he had bet $0 on the two daily doubles, he would have had $9600 more and been out of reach. (It is mathematically incorect to bet so much in that situation unless he was 99%+ confident that he would know the answer to the question.)

[ThaSaltCracka]

who the hell bets $0 on a daily double?

[Sundevils21]

[ QUOTE ]
He actually got knocked out on his own bad decisions. If he had bet $0 on the two daily doubles, he would have had $9600 more and been out of reach. (It is mathematically incorect to bet so much in that situation unless he was 99%+ confident that he would know the answer to the question.)

[/ QUOTE ]

at that point, surviving to the next show wasn't his main concern(I'm guessing)

[2planka]

You are incorrect. The entity Ken is an alien. Its mission is now complete. Its corporeal existence is now irrelevant. Its being is now returned to the pod. End transmission.

[Daliman]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
He looked like he was trying to win, but it could be that he threw the final jeoperdy question, but why would he? There is freakin money on the line.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Jeopardy is a high-stress job. $2.5M is a lot of dough for most people. The combination of those two could have easily caused him to lose on purpose.

[/ QUOTE ]

What color is the sky in your world?

This guy is a software engineer. It ain't getting boring for him, and I can guarantee you, it wasn't all that stressful for the reward given.

Seriously. Just think about how silly your contention sounds.

[JustSomeJackass]

And probably more than one time. When they finally get enough 4 and 5 day (and more) winners to hold a "Tournament of Champions" he will come back and cruise to victory again. Plus they have had tournaments where they bring back champions from previous years for an "ultimate" Jeopardy Championship...I think they gave away $1 million to the winner of one of these.

The ratings on the show during his run were too good not to find ways to bring him back for an encore.

He is working on a book, and also will probably be a lot of players "phone a friend" on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, in addition to his recent trip through the talk show circuit. He'll continue to annoy for years to come!!!

[jstnrgrs]

[ QUOTE ]
at that point, surviving to the next show wasn't his main concern(I'm guessing)

[/ QUOTE ]

and that's why he lost.

[Diplomat]

I've got a feeling that the show has hit a climax. I wouldn't be surprized if there is a significant decline in ratings over the next year.

I'm not saying another player like KJ is not possible, I'm just wondering how much damage to the show his rise and fall has done. Thoughts?

-Diplomat

[Blarg]

Hasn't the show been going on for 30 years? It's a very solid formula. Especially compared to other game shows. And it's on in slots generally filled with the stupidest, most trivlal programming on television, which is saying one helluva lot -- Inside Edition, Hollywood this and that, whatever celebrity blather. So anyone with half a brain who doesn't have cable and has already heard the day's news is funnelled naturally toward Jeopardy.

I think what could threaten the show is that I heard Alex Trebeck might leave in a while. Maybe that rumor is wrong, but he is kind of an icon there, in a way.

Actually to me right now the most damaging thing by far is that the questions are fetishing cute puns and lame jokes lately. They aren't depending on knowledge nearly as much, or giving interesting knowledge/trivia when you figure them out. The annoying puns/jokes can sometimes reward the "clever," but the the lameness of these types of questions makes the show feel like it has run out of steam sometimes, and can make it seem more irritating than challenging.