'Jeopardy' host Ken Jennings reveals one key thing he ‘learned’ from the show: 'People who were...'

From setting the longest winning streak on "Jeopardy!" to becoming the face of the show, Ken Jennings has come a long way. In his decades-long journey with the popular game show, a lot has changed, and recently Jennings opened up about a few things he has learned, while in conversation with KUOW. The game show host also shared a few things that he does differently from the show's former legendary host, Alex Trebek.

In a conversation about his latest book, "The Complete Kennections: 5,000 Questions in 1,000 Puzzles," Jennings was asked about his input in the show's content and interactions with the players. While he admitted that he doesn't contribute much to the clues, the host shared that he does try to uplift the morale of contestants. 

He shared that one thing he learned on the show was that it is hard for the host to tell which contestants would handle the pressure of the lights and cameras well. “People who were great on a written test get overwhelmed in that [environment] because it is overwhelming," he said. "'Jeopardy!' moves so fast," he added. 

Jennings said he understands that it is a dream for the players to be on the show, and there are a lot of big feelings involved. Thus, he does a few things differently from his predecessor to calm the nerves. He shared that while Trebek met the contestants at the beginning of the show, he liked to have a chat even before that. “I want to say, ‘I’m on your side here. We're going to do great. It's actually going to be fun when you look back on this, believe it or not,” he explained.

Jennings further talked about the role of the show in people's lives and how it shows that trivia matters in day-to-day life. “'Jeopardy!' in particular, is a place where, every night, for half an hour, facts matter,” he said. “Trivia should bring people together, because despite the name, it’s not usually trivial. It’s usually stuff that we collectively know as a culture,” the host added. 

He still holds the record for his 74-game winning streak, and is still pretty sharp when it comes to acing trivia-based game shows. Recently, he paired up with Oscar-winning actor Matt Damon to compete in the celebrity edition of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. There, Jennings added his name to the coveted list of celebrities who won the top prize of $1 million. 

Even though he is a trivia expert, Jennings admitted that he, too, was under pressure on Kimmel's show. “The questions were difficult,” he told KUOW. “If you don't know the answer to every single question, they send you home. Whereas on 'Jeopardy!' if you don’t know 10 questions in a row, you might be fine,” Jennings said, while comparing the two shows. 

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