A 'Jeopardy!'-style Look at Ken Jennings' Winning Streak
Nov. 30, 2004 — -- Answer: He's the most famous software engineer in Salt Lake City and an authority on all things arcane. Question: Who is Ken Jennings?
That one might be too easy, even for the play-at-home kiddy edition of the Alex Trebek-hosted show where contestants must give the correct responses -- and always in the form of a question -- to leading statements involving a potpourri of factoids.
Here's a "Jeopardy!"-style look at Jennings' streak, and some of the questions he's faced along the way, including the question that ended Jennings' fantastic streak after 75 games.
The category: Winners.
The clue: This Michigan engineer might not have been cheering Monday, when Jennings' winnings passed the $2.5 million mark.
The proper response:Who is Kevin Olmstead? TV's former top game show winner, Olmtead competed on ABC's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" in 2001. With more than $2.5 million in winnings, Jennings is now No. 1.
The category: Losers
The clue: This is how "Jeopardy!" fans identify those unfortunate souls who thought they could beat Mr. Jennings
The proper response: What is "Kennon fodder"?
The category: Love Life
The clue: Jennings was majoring in English and engineering here when he and future wife, Mindy, met and fell in love.
The proper response: What is Brigham Young University?
The category: Family
The clue: If he's anything like his dad, he'll be reading at age 2.
The proper response: Who is Dylan, Jennings' 22-month-old son?
The category: Buzzer Ringing.
The clue: At 92.4 percent, you can hardly call him perfect.
The proper response: What percentage of the time did Jennings answer correctly? (That's according to KenJenningsWatch.com.)
The category: Becoming a Millionaire
The clue: He did it $34,781 at a time.
The proper response: What were Jennings' average daily winnings?
The category: Childhood
The clue: Jennings' love of "Jeopardy!" began here as an elementary school student.
The proper response: What is South Korea? That's where Jennings went to school from second to 12th grade.
The category: Final Jeopardy Question From Last Week -- 20th-Century Presidents
The clue: Aptly, his middle name contained the word "rich."
The proper response: Who is Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller? Jennings, naturally, answered correctly.
The category: Final Jeopardy Monday -- Baby Names
The clue: Of the Social Security Administration's top 10 boys' names in the year 2000, the two, ending in the same letter, on a list of the 12 Apostles.
The proper response: What are Andrew and Matthew? Jennings risked $5,800 and won.
The category: Final Jeopardy Monday -- 19th-Century History
The clue: Of the five times Congress has declared war, the threeduring the 19th century were against these three nations.
The proper response: What are Spain, Mexico and Britain. Jennings had written Spain, Mexico and Britain, but then crossed out the latter and wrote Confederate States of America. He lost $9,200.
The category: Final Jeopardy Tuesday -- Jennings' Downfall
The clue: Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.
The proper response: What is H&R Block? Jennings responded, "What is FedEx?"