Ken Jennings had a 74-game winning streak as 'Jeopardy' player — until he made one silly mistake
Most game show hosts are selected after they've already gained fame as comedians or in similar roles on other shows. But "Mr Jeopardy!" Ken Jennings was picked as a successor to Alex Trebek because his claim to fame was a legendary winning streak as a contestant on the same show. His impressive 74 wins during his stint as a player on "Jeopardy!" remain one of the greatest runs ever on any game show. However, what also remains stuck in the fans' memory is the moment that took the unbeaten title away from Jennings.
Jennings first appeared on "Jeopardy!" Back in 2004 as a starry-eyed contestant. The young trivia expert, worked as a software developer at a healthcare staffing facility at the time, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He told the outlet that he auditioned for the show a year prior, and when the confirmation came, he went into "full competition mode." He shared that he watched the show 12 times a week during the reruns and he did switch on a "Rocky training mode". "I would stand up behind a recliner that I pretended was a contestant podium," he said.
Luckily for Jennings, the show had just done away with a 'maximum five wins' rule, which meant that if a contestant kept winning, he/she would be allowed to stay on the show until they lost. Jennings had a flying start on the show, winning a whopping $37,201 after his first game. He kept winning and within a month his reward soared past the $1 million threshold.
One of the standout moments was an answer related to Leif Ericson, which no one apart from Jennings knew. Winning his way forward, Jennings went on to create a winning streak of 74 straight games. Jennings's last game in his streak went on air on November 30, 2004. In the 'Final Jeopardy' game, he was competing against Nancy Zerg, who had been neck and neck with the legend throughout the episode.
The final round featured the category of "Business and Industry," and the clue was, "Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year." Trebek first went to Zerg who answered, "What is H&R Block?" which turned out to be correct. She wagered $4,401 which took her total to $14,401, which was $1 more than Jennings.
When the turn went to Jennings, he wrote "What is FedEx?" as his answer. The room went silent after the audience let out a huge gasp. The reaction was expected as nobody ever thought that the legendary player would mix up H&R Block and FedEx.
Jennings had wagered $5,601 which put his total lower than Zerg's, which meant that she ended the 74-game winning streak of the player. Before that, Jennings had guessed the correct answer 2,700 times and amassed $2.52 million in winnings. Even Trebek seemed shocked as he referred to his opponent as a "giant killer."
Nevertheless, Jennings went home with a historic total of $2.7 million in winnings from the show. He made a return to the show to compete for the title of "The Greatest of All Time" and then he eventually became the full-time host of the show.
