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The Man Who Knew Too Much
theodp writes "For thrilling competition, Slate says the Tour de France pales next to the 25-game reign of Jeopardy! supercontestant Ken Jennings. The 30-year-old software engineer has won a total of $788,960, beating the previous record-holder by a margin of over $600,000. Watching KenJen play is like witnessing any great athlete in top form: He's the Michael Jordan of trivia, the Seabiscuit of geekdom, and his antics have once again made Jeopardy! required viewing. (Update: 26 wins and $828,960: 'When Jennings ran the Marvel comics category during the second round, host Alex Trebek asked: Have you done anything besides read comics? It pays to be a nerd, Jennings responded.')"
If Jennings were on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, he could already have more money by now (and it wouldn't take him a month to do it).
I'm actually really impressed that this man is getting so much respect (and money!) for how much he knows. Most of it is useless trivia, but to most people, that comes across as intelligence...a man is getting respect for his intelligence, on daytime TV. Awesome.
Well duh, obviously they got caught since you know about it. The possible good cheaters don't.
Lalala
If our culture is headed down the path of having high esteem for people who appear and do successfully on game shows--boy are we screwed.
Oh, wait. We already do that with reality tv people. Whoops, my bad.
People being celebrated for their intelligence and wit, and not their looks or physical attributes. Are we still in America? What happened here?
:D
Anyone remember the episode of Sliders where Quinn (sp) was on the game show of extremely high level math and science questions (while throwing a ball). The perfect world for geeks
Wow, this article is lacking something... content maybe? Someone who has seen the show maybe?
Note his systematic habit of moving down the categories vertically, one by one, rather than skipping around the board.
Everyone does this.
His nearly preternatural ability to land on the hidden Daily Doubles.
The odds are much more in your favor for hitting the DD if you answer the most questions.
Sounds like Dana Stevens watched one episode and thought she understood. 2/3rds of the article isn't even about Jeopardy! or Ken. It's really amazing these kinds of journalists can get a job.
This is the Internet. You can say "fuck" here. - AC
"Tour de France pales next to the 25-game reign of Jeopardy!"
I'm sorry, but a 23 day 2235 mile, (3600 KM), race at full speed PALES?
Yesterday was the time trials, and the US Postal team finished first with an average speed of 33 MPH, 53 KPH.
That's amazing... and they'll keep doing it. With other racers such as Ullrich, Hamilton, Julich, etc, this is going to be a great year to watch the race.
Sure this fella on Jepoardy is smart, but we don't know if the show is trumping it up, now do we?
I mean... we can get one smart guy, and keep getting dumb challengers, and hey... look... wow.. he DEFINATELY looks smart, and won't loose.
Can anyone say, "ratings"... I mean, on a bad channel, and a bad time... they need something right?
At least the tour isn't fake, and everyone is at the same level, going for the same goal.
I'll take the Tour over any WB show anyday.
www.slightlycrewed.com - Because aren't we all?
Not necessarily.
The median difficulty question can't be too hard. Part of the fun of a game show is sitting at home knowing the answer and watching the contestant choke.
It wouldn't be any fun if the contenstants were asked to know things that only a tiny minority of people are likely to know, like the name of the actor who played "Bobba Fett" in the Star Wars movies.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
"If his winning streak continues, Jennings could become the most celebrated software engineer in America." :)
Engineers can put probes on Mars and take pictures of Jupiter, but if you want to be celebrated, you must go on TV
Underholdning.info
I dunno, the Tour de France is still freakin' incredible.
... downhill.
The fact that cyclists can ride a 40+ mile route at an average of 33+ MPH is amazing. Especially if you consider all the rain. And that I have a tough time going 30+ MPH
Go Lance!
"Personally I think he will just decide to walk once he hits $1000000."
I don't think so. If I were in his place, I would keep going until I lost or they made me leave. There's not too many chances in life to rack up that kind of cash that quickly. He should and probably will take full advantage of it.
"There's not too many chances in life to rack up that kind of cash that quickly. He should and probably will take full advantage of it."
Even ignoring the fact that he's making so much money, I bet he's *enjoying* it. Who wouldn't want to have that much fun and then get paid for it?
What's astonishing to me is that *nobody* mentions that the only reason he's so far ahead of previous records is that in all previous seasons you were booted after 5 wins. Of *course* someone doing very well is going to beat records by a lot - anyone who did this well on any previous season would have left the show three weeks ago with a paltry 150K or so.
Sure, the guy's good. But there's no way to tell how much better he is than previous 5-day winners, because those previous winners never got the chance to show what they could do.
"Former rule was five days and you're out (but eligible for the year-end 'Tournament of Champions'); this has been dropped this year allowing for the current streak of said Ken J."
That makes his streak less impressive. J has been on for decades, right? So he's only just proving that many people could have done the same thing (as many have gone 5 days before.)
Ken is a super smart guy, but the buzzer factor helps ensure he doesn't have a bad night and lose to another smart guy (or girl).
XML causes global warming.
I'll take "Swords" for $1000, Trebeck!
It's like he knows one of the guys who makes up the trivia. It's really incredible.
OK, this is probably just paranoid thoughts going through my head, but give me a chance.
Think about this. The Jeopardy people approach some guy. Say, hey we can fix you up with the answers for the questions and you will be the all time Jeopardy champ of champs. You will win about $1 mil on the show, and loose to somebody. We will give you $250,000 upfront and $250,000 when its over.
So, the ratings go through the roof for Jeopardy (more $$$). The Jeopardy people are actually paying out 1/2 of their prize money, and the nerdy guy comes out with a cool 1/2 mil, and people enjoy seeing him win and talking about it.
Sounds like a win-win situation for everybody.
Are there any ethics to game shows? I mean most everything else is fiction on TV, do game shows have to be real?
I'm sure he is a gamer. How would explain is god-like timing for the answer button.
I think you are correct also based on my extensive knowledge of Quizshow, but I'm curious why there was a congressional investigation into a television game show? It's good TV, why does it matter (legally or not) if it's fixed? Sure Pro Wrestling isn't the Olympics (not that they aren't just as corrupt) but it remains a fairly popular entertainment medium? Why was/is it so important?
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
One of the bonuses to walking away when he hits 1 million is then it will be an open question how long he could have gone on for. Maybe there isn't anyone on the planet that could beat him, if he walks away that remains an open question, but if he keeps going until he gets beaten, well then we know the answer to that question.