The Final Jeopardy! answer was, "She's the first female track & field athlete to win medals in five different events at a single Olympics." Jennings responded with "Who is Jones?" using only the last name of Marion Jones (who was not stripped of her medals until December 2007). In that first episode, Jennings' entire winning streak nearly ended before it even began. Jennings' run began during Jeopardy! 's 20th season with the episode aired on June 2, 2004, in which he unseated two-time returning champion Jerry Harvey, and continued into season 21. After this rule change, and until Jennings' run, the record winning streak was set by Tom Walsh, who won $186,900 in eight games in January 2004. At the beginning of the show's 20th season in 2003, the rules were changed to allow contestants to remain on the show as long as they continued to win.
Career Streak on Jeopardy! īefore 2003, Jeopardy! contestants were limited to five consecutive wins. He also played on the school's quizbowl team, at one point serving as captain, and graduated in 2000 with a double major in English and computer science. One of his roommates at BYU was author Brandon Sanderson. Following two years as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he was assigned to serve in Madrid, Spain, Jennings transferred to Brigham Young University in 1996. Upon returning to the United States, Jennings attended the University of Washington. His father was a lawyer employed overseas, and Jennings spent 15 years growing up in South Korea and Singapore where his father worked. Jennings was born on May 23, 1974, in Edmonds, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. Īfter his success on Jeopardy!, Jennings wrote about his experience and explored American trivia history and culture in his book Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs, published in 2006. In 2020, he once again faced off with and won against Rutter, as well as James Holzhauer, in a special primetime series, Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time. Jennings regained the record after appearances on several other game shows, culminating with his results on an October 2008 appearance on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, though Rutter retained the record for highest Jeopardy! winnings and once again passed Jennings' total after his victory in the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades tournament. His total was surpassed by Rutter, who defeated Jennings in the finals of the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, adding $2 million to Rutter's existing Jeopardy! winnings. Jennings' total earnings on Jeopardy! are $4,522,700, consisting of: $2,520,700 over his 74 wins a $2,000 second-place prize in his 75th appearance a $500,000 second-place prize in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions (2005) a $300,000 second-place prize in Jeopardy! 's IBM Challenge (2011), when he lost to the Watson computer but became the first person to beat third-place finisher Brad Rutter a $100,000 second-place prize in the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades (2014) a $100,000 second-place prize (his share of his team's $300,000 prize) in the Jeopardy! All-Star Games (2019) and a $1,000,000 first-place prize in Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time (2020).ĭuring his first run of Jeopardy! appearances, Jennings earned the record for the highest American game show winnings. In 2004, Jennings won 74 consecutive Jeopardy! games before he was defeated by challenger Nancy Zerg in his 75th appearance. He also holds the record for the highest average correct responses per game in Jeopardy! history (for those contestants with at least 300 correct responses) with 35.9 during his original run (no other contestant has exceeded 30) and 33.1 overall, including tournaments and special events. Jennings holds the record for the longest winning streak on Jeopardy! with 74 consecutive wins. In 2023, Jennings received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Game Show for hosting Jeopardy!. Since 2021, Jennings and Mayim Bialik have alternated as hosts of that show, as well as Celebrity Jeopardy!.
He is the highest-earning American game show contestant, having won money on five different game shows, including $4,522,700 on the U.S.
Kenneth Wayne Jennings III (born May 23, 1974) is an American game show host, author, and former game show contestant.
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