Ken Jennings facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ken Jennings
Jennings in 2007
Born	Kenneth Wayne Jennings III (1974-05-23) May 23, 1974 (age 51) Edmonds, Washington, U.S.
Alma mater	Brigham Young University (BA, BS)
Occupation	Game show contestant game show host author podcaster
Years active	2003–present
Known for	Holding the record for all-time American game show winnings Having the longest Jeopardy! winning streak Hosting Jeopardy! and Celebrity Jeopardy!
Spouse(s)	Mindy Boam ​ (m. 2000)​
Children	2

Kenneth Wayne Jennings III (born May 23, 1974) is a famous American game show host, former contestant, and author. He is most known for his amazing success on the quiz show Jeopardy!. First, he was a contestant, and now he is the host!

Ken was born in Edmonds, Washington, in the U.S. But he spent his childhood in South Korea and Singapore. Before becoming a game show star, he worked as a computer programmer. In 2004, he tried out for Jeopardy! and changed the show forever.

During his first time on Jeopardy!, Ken won 74 games in a row! This set a new record for the longest winning streak. He also became the highest-earning American game show contestant at that time. His incredible run brought a lot of attention to the show.

After his big win, Ken became an author. He wrote books about his Jeopardy! experience and about American trivia. He also appeared on other game shows, like The Chase, where he was called "The Professor." He even hosted a podcast called Omnibus.

In 2020, Ken returned to Jeopardy! as a producer. After the beloved host Alex Trebek passed away that same year, Ken became a guest host. He shared hosting duties with actress Mayim Bialik for a while. Then, in 2023, he became the sole host of Jeopardy!.

Ken holds many game show records. He is the second highest-earning American game show contestant ever. He has won money on five different game shows. His total winnings on Jeopardy! alone are over $4.5 million! His first winning streak of 74 games is still the longest in the show's history. He also has the record for the most correct answers per game. In 2020, Ken won the special Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament.

Ken's Early Life and Family

Kenneth Wayne Jennings III was born on May 23, 1974, in Edmonds, Washington. This city is near Seattle. When Ken was in first grade, his father, who was a lawyer, moved the family to South Korea. His mother was a teacher for the Department of Defense overseas. Ken grew up watching Jeopardy! on the American Forces Network. He lived in Korea and Singapore for 11 years and graduated from the Seoul Foreign School.

After returning to the United States, Ken went to the University of Washington. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spent two years as a volunteer missionary in Madrid, Spain. In 1996, he transferred to Brigham Young University (BYU). He played on the school's quizbowl team and was even captain at one point. He graduated in 2000 with degrees in English and computer science. He met his wife, Mindy, at BYU, and they have two children.

After college, Ken lived in Salt Lake City and worked as a software engineer. After his big Jeopardy! success, Ken and his family moved to Seattle. He now balances his time between being an author and hosting Jeopardy!. Even though Jeopardy! is filmed in Los Angeles, Ken still lives in Seattle. He has a small place in Los Angeles where he stays when he's taping the show.

Ken's Jeopardy! Journey

His Amazing Winning Streak

Before 2003, Jeopardy! contestants could only win five games in a row. But at the start of the show's 20th season in 2003, the rules changed. Contestants could now stay on the show as long as they kept winning! Ken took the Jeopardy! test in 2003 but didn't hear back for a year. When he finally got the call, he had three weeks to get ready. Ken prepared a lot! He used a couch as a podium, a toy as a buzzer, and his wife helped him with flash cards and kept score.

Ken's amazing run began on June 2, 2004. In his very first episode, he almost lost! The Final Jeopardy! question was about the first female athlete to win five medals in one Olympics. Ken answered "Who is Jones?" using only the last name of Marion Jones. Host Alex Trebek accepted it, saying there weren't many female athletes like her. If his answer hadn't been accepted, Ken would have lost that first game.

His historic winning streak was underway! Ken taped 48 episodes before any of them even aired. His last game was taped in September 2004 but didn't air until November 30, 2004. His time as Jeopardy! champion ended when he lost his 75th game to Nancy Zerg. Ken answered two questions incorrectly in the Double Jeopardy! round, which cost him a lot of money. This meant he didn't have a huge lead going into Final Jeopardy!, which was rare for him.

The Final Jeopardy! category was Business & Industry. The clue was about a company where most of its 70,000 seasonal workers only work four months a year. Ken looked puzzled, but Nancy Zerg answered quickly. She correctly said, "What is H&R Block?" and won the game! Ken incorrectly answered "What is FedEx?" and lost. The audience gasped, and Nancy was shocked. Ken was awarded $2,000 for second place, bringing his total winnings from his first run to $2,522,700. Nancy Zerg, whom Ken called a "formidable opponent," finished third in the next show. The audience gave both contestants a standing ovation.

Ken answered over 2,700 questions correctly during his run. His streak was paused by summer breaks and special tournaments like Kids' Week and the Tournament of Champions. He went five months without a loss! On December 1, 2004, the day after his defeat, Ken appeared on the show again. Alex Trebek praised his success and listed all the records he had broken.

How Ken's Streak Changed Jeopardy!

Ken's 75 matches were broadcast over 182 days. His time on the show brought a lot of media attention and boosted TV ratings. Jeopardy! ratings were much higher during Ken's run. For several weeks, Jeopardy! was the highest-rated syndicated show on TV. Ken was given credit for making the show more popular, especially with younger viewers.

The attention changed Ken's life overnight. He became a household name. Ken appeared on many TV shows, including The Tonight Show and Sesame Street. He even read the "Top Ten List" on the Late Show with David Letterman. Because Ken's losing Final Jeopardy! answer was "FedEx," BBDO created an advertisement for FedEx that said, "There's only one time FedEx has ever been the wrong answer."

Ken donated ten percent of his winnings to his church. His streak also led to some changes behind the scenes at Jeopardy!. Producers added more rehearsal time for new players to get used to the buzzers. The person who managed the buzzer system was also changed to make it fairer for all players.

Competing in Tournaments

Ken Jennings in 2005

Ken returned to Jeopardy! many times over the years for special tournaments. In 2005, he competed in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions. He was automatically placed in the finals. In the final round, Brad Rutter defeated Ken and Jerome Vered. Ken won $500,000 for second place.

In 2011, Ken returned for the Jeopardy! "IBM Challenge." This was a special competition where the computer Watson played against Ken and Brad Rutter. It was the first time a human played against a machine on the show. Watson won the competition, earning $1,000,000 for charity. Ken came in second, winning $300,000. Below his response in the Final Jeopardy! round, Ken famously wrote, "I for one welcome our new computer overlords."

Ken also played in the 2014 Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades tournament. He made it to the finals with Brad Rutter and Roger Craig. Ken placed second, winning $100,000. In 2019, Ken was a captain in the Jeopardy! All-Star Games. His team finished second, and Ken won $100,000.

In January 2020, a special tournament called Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time aired. Ken competed against Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer. Ken won the championship and was crowned the "Greatest of All Time"! He won a $1,000,000 prize, bringing his total Jeopardy! winnings to over $3.5 million.

Hosting Jeopardy!

Ken Jennings in 2019

In September 2020, Ken became a consulting producer for Jeopardy!. This job included reading categories on air. The longtime host, Alex Trebek, had been battling pancreatic cancer. Alex taped his final episode on October 29, 2020. Ken was chosen to be the interim host for the next taping. Sadly, Alex Trebek passed away on November 8, 2020.

Many people thought Ken would be the next host. Alex Trebek himself had reportedly considered Ken as his successor. Alex's widow, Jean, even gave Ken a pair of Alex's cufflinks before Ken's first time hosting. Ken was announced as the first in a series of guest hosts in November 2020. His episodes aired from January 11 to February 19, 2021.

After a short period where another person was named host and then quickly left, Ken began hosting the daily show again. He shared hosting duties with actress Mayim Bialik, who had also been a guest host. In 2022, it was announced that Ken and Mayim would split full-time hosting duties for the show's 39th season. Ken also started hosting a new show called Jeopardy! Masters in 2023. This is a primetime tournament where six top Jeopardy! champions compete.

In May 2023, Mayim Bialik stepped away from Jeopardy! due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. Ken then hosted the last 20 episodes of season 39. Soon after, it was announced that Ken would also host the second season of Celebrity Jeopardy!. In September 2023, Ken was nominated for an Emmy Award for his hosting. After the strikes ended, Ken became the permanent sole host of Jeopardy! starting with the 40th season.

Hosting During the 2023 Writers Strike

In May 2023, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. This was part of negotiations for better pay and benefits. Ken's co-host, Mayim Bialik, chose not to film the show's final week as a result. Ken was brought in to host instead. While some people wondered if this was crossing a picket line, a statement from SAG-AFTRA (the actors' union) clarified that Jeopardy! operates under a different contract. So, Ken was not breaking any rules. The show returned for season 40 in late 2023. It used a mix of old material and new questions written before the strike. The show had done something similar during the 2007–08 strike.

Ken's Writing and Other Work

After his first big success on Jeopardy!, Ken got a book deal. He left his job as a programmer to focus on writing. His book, Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs, came out in 2006. It talks about his Jeopardy! experiences and his research into trivia.

He also wrote Ken Jennings' Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days, which is a big book of trivia questions. Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks explores the world of people who love maps. Because I Said So! is a funny look at common myths and warnings parents tell their kids. Ken has also written five books for his children's series, Junior Genius Guides. In 2018, he published Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture. This book looks at how comedy has become a big part of pop culture.

Ken has written trivia questions for the National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT). He has also been a moderator at their high school tournaments. He used to have a weekly trivia column called Kennections in Parade magazine. Now, Kennections appears online in Mental Floss magazine. He also had a column in Mental Floss called "Six Degrees of Ken Jennings." In this column, he would connect two very different things in six steps, like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game.

Ken also wrote a trivia newsletter called Trivia Tuesday from 2006 to 2021. Every Tuesday, he would send out an email with seven questions. The seventh question was designed to be hard to Google. He stopped the newsletter in 2021 because he had more commitments with Jeopardy! and book tours.

Besides his writing, Ken won the rookie division of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 2006. He also played in live trivia races on the app FleetWit. He was a regular player in LearnedLeague, a private trivia league.

Other TV Shows and Appearances

After becoming famous from Jeopardy!, Ken signed with a talent agency. He appeared in commercials for Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia and Cingular Wireless (now AT&T). He also gave speeches. A board game called Can You Beat Ken? was even made, where players tried to win more money than Ken.

Ken has appeared on many other game shows. He was a contestant on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and 1 vs. 100 in 2006. He also appeared on Grand Slam in 2007 and 500 Questions in 2016. In 2008, he was on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. He also appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as an "Ask the Expert" helper. In 2014, he was a contestant on Millionaire and won $100,000.

In November 2020, Ken was announced as one of the three "chasers" on the ABC revival of The Chase. He was joined by Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer. Ken left the show after the second season. In May 2023, he competed on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune against Mayim Bialik and Vanna White. He won $72,800 for the Equal Justice Initiative charity.

Outside of game shows, Ken has appeared on the podcast Doug Loves Movies. In 2017, he started co-hosting a new show called Omnibus with John Roderick. They talk about topics they worry might be forgotten by history. Ken also narrated the audiobook version of Alex Trebek's autobiography, The Answer Is.... This narration was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

Ken's Game Show Records

Ken Jennings won $2,522,700 during his first Jeopardy! run. He held the record for the highest-earning American game show contestant for many years. This record was broken in March 2025 by David Genat. Ken has won money on five different game shows, including over $4.5 million on Jeopardy!.

He also holds the record for the longest winning streak on Jeopardy! with 74 wins in a row. Ken also has the record for the highest average number of correct answers per game in Jeopardy! history. During his original run, he averaged 35.9 correct answers per game.

In 2004, Ken won 74 straight Jeopardy! games before losing his 75th game to Nancy Zerg. His total earnings on Jeopardy! are $4,522,700. This includes:

• $2,520,700 from his 74 wins.
• $2,000 for second place in his 75th game.
• $500,000 for second place in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions (2005).
• $300,000 for second place in Jeopardy!'s IBM Challenge (2011).
• $100,000 for second place in the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades (2014).
• $100,000 for second place in the Jeopardy! All-Star Games (2019).
• $1,000,000 for first place in Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time (2020).

Ken first earned the record for the highest American game show winnings. Then, Brad Rutter surpassed him after winning the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions. Ken regained the record after appearing on other game shows. However, Brad Rutter again passed Ken's total after winning the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades tournament. In 2020, Ken won against Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer in Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time, which helped him regain his top spot for a time.

Recognition for His Achievements

On March 3, 2020, the Washington State Legislature honored Ken. They approved Senate Resolution 8704, congratulating him for all his achievements on game shows.

Filmography

See also

• List of notable Jeopardy! contestants
• Strategies and skills of Jeopardy! champions