Will that guy on Jeopardy ever lose?

ratings are up up UP

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/09/08/entertainment2352EDT0227.DTL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Jennings

I found this because Alex Trebek asked him tonight if he'd ever googled himself, so of course I had to do it.

He's at $2 247 000 now.

What's odd is that Nancy won with merely just over $14,000 or so. Ken shot himself in the foot with all the questions/answers that required him to make wagers. It seemed like he was towards the bottom end of every $5,000 bracket (he always bets up to 5, 10, 15, 20, and so on), and, worse, he got them wrong. Nancy doesn't strike me as someone who'll carry the baton of the slayer. She was merely the competent player in the right place at the right time.

i haven't watched any of this at all, but I heard quite a long time ago (popbitch maybe?) that this was ovah. they film a bunch of episodes at a time a long time in advance, so it's not like ppl are going back to burbank every day to play again.

I assumed he would just quit voluntarily, all his laurels meaningless, and wander the earth like a trivia miyamoto musashi.

That Trebek scares me, I'm sure he killed the Kennedys.

They didn't. It leaked onto the web almost immediately.

But in the end, Ken did more to lose than she did to win, although Ken -- characteristically -- won't admit that when asked in interviews.

"Oh my, I won?"

"Hell, no - I threw that shit!"

Apparently he lost
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/09/08/entertainment2352EDT0227.DTL

-- Ed (dal...) (webmail), September 9th, 2004 8:36 AM. (dali) (link)

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yup, it'll air in october
-- cinniblount

I was happy to see Brad and Jerome in the final. I remember Jerome very well from his initial run -- he was one of the most dominant players I ever saw.

Brad was a more than deserving winner. He crushed his competition in the semifinal, and cruised in the third day of the final. Ken and Jerome actually looked lost out there.

As discussed upthread, "Jeopardy" could learn a thing or two about fanfare. Alex was like "we'll be back tomorrow with regular games". Brad won the match and he reacted like he'd just been congratulated on his tie. DUDE, YOU JUST BEAT LIKE 150 PEOPLE AND WON TWO MILLION DOLLARS. BE HAPPY.

Jerome would have dominated for a while as well. He won $96K during his five days on the show (when the $ totals were half of what they are now) and all five of them were typical Ken wins -- complete dominance. He'd go on long rolls and answer questions all over the board while his opponents just stood there. He finished all his games with 20K to everyone else's 4K and was never seriously tested. When tested, however, in the Tournament of Champions, he made far too many mistakes against quality opponents, fell behind early in the final and couldn't catch up. And that's exactly what happened to him in this tournament (what's more, he was extremely lucky to get out of his quarterfinal match).

Ken: $3,020,700
Brad: $3,255,102.

So, yes, Ken can pass Brad again if he wins the TOC.

The Wikipedia page here will tell you everything you every wanted to know about the UTOC.

Also, Brad was a five-time champion, won the TOC, and the Million Dollar Masters all within a twelve month span or thereabouts ... so he certainly was a favourite to win the MDM. This all happened so quickly that I guess I was taken by surprise when he won it.

On a question that was almost COMPLETELY freakin' impossible! Lucretia?!?! WHO KNOWS THAT?!?