Ken Jennings finally addresses the conspiracy theory that he lost ‘Jeopardy’ on purpose after 74-game streak
A two-decade 'Jeopardy' mystery has finally been laid to rest. During a recent appearance on the 'Inside Jeopardy' podcast, the long-time host Ken Jennings revealed whether or not he threw his final 'Jeopardy' game on purpose. Before becoming the host of the legendary show, Jennings himself played as a contestant on it. During his time as a contestant on the show, he set many records; the biggest was a 74-game winning streak, which earned him a whopping $2.5 million. His run ended on November 30, 2004, with one wrong answer to a clue from the 'Business & Industry' category during the 'Final Jeopardy' segment. Since that fateful day, longtime fans have speculated that he lost on purpose.
The clue that ended Jennings' streak was "Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work for 4 months of the year." The now-host answered, "What is FedEx?" which turned out to be wrong. The correct answer was "What is H&R Block?" Jennings had wagered $5,601 in this round, and the loss brought it to $8,799. Until that question, the audience had seen Jennings make his way out of the most complicated clues with relative ease. Therefore, the viewers were slightly taken aback when Jennings failed this one, leading to the aforementioned speculation.
In the podcast episode that aired on Tuesday, a man from the audience asked Jennings the question directly, "Did you really not know the answers to the last 'Final Jeopardy' question?" he asked, claiming that the speculation had been haunting him for the last two decades. Jennings did not shy away from the question. "For 20 years, this gentleman has been thinking I took a dive," he said. "Have you ever willingly quit a job where you were making $70,000 an hour?" The estimates suggest the now-host was earning $33,784 per game and $67,568 per hour. The answer was clear: the gig was so lucrative that he had no reason to give it up. Another fan chimed in from the audience, that he may have just gotten 'bored' with winning and threw in the towel.
Jennings also rejected the 'boring' theory. He shared that the answer was simply out of his wheelhouse. "As it turned out, it was a clue about H&R Block, the tax prep company... I think I could have thought about that one all day and still not have figured out that it was H&R Block. That's kind of how these long runs go — they always seem inevitable until a few things happen, and then suddenly, they're not so inevitable anymore," he explained. Jennings later returned to compete as a contestant in several special 'Jeopardy!' tournaments before becoming a host in Season 39. The show continues to air in syndication across the US and Canada in local ABC, NBC, CBS, or FOX stations.
