Ken Jennings reveals the ‘dirty secret of Jeopardy’ as he admits it’s the ‘cushiest’ thing about his hosting gig
JEOPARDY! host Ken Jennings has opened up about one of the cushiest parts of hosting the beloved game show during a new interview.
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos welcomed Ken on their Live talk show on Tuesday to discuss what it’s like to work on such an iconic program, and he gave all the details.
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Ken Jennings appeared as a guest on Live with Kelly and Mark on TuesdayCredit: NBC
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The Jeopardy! host revealed a ‘dirty secret’ about hosting the game showCredit: ABC
To promote the Jeopardy! Masters tournament that began airing this week, Ken has been making the rounds on the biggest talk shows.
During his Live appearance on Tuesday, Kelly wanted to know all about the game show’s shooting schedule.
Ken lives in Seattle but films in Los Angeles.
“I commute,” he told her, before adding that it’s “not that bad because it’s a short flight.”
He went on to reveal that the “dirty secret about Jeopardy” that makes his trips to film the show even easier.
“We do like five in a day. Like a full week of Jeopardy,” Ken revealed.
Kelly and Mark clapped for that revelation, as the actress gushed that that sounded like the “best schedule ever.”
Ken admitted: “It is pretty cushy. I come down for a day or two. We do 10 shows, boom boom boom.”
The game show star explained how it works: “The host changes his tie. The contestant who won changes their outfit, and them I’m like, ‘On yesterday’s program.’
“It wasn’t yesterday! It was like 10 minutes ago!”
While Kelly and Mark don’t shoot five episodes of their talk show in a day, they do know a bit about saying it’s a specific date on the show but actually filming it on a completely different date.
Fans are used to this when it comes to Jeopardy!, but they have not been happy about it when it comes to Kelly and Mark’s talk show, as “live” is part of the title and a key element of the program.
The hosts have come under fire for airing more than a handful of previously recorded episodes recently, especially as Mark has only just taken over as co-host from Ryan Seacrest.
After hosting with Ryan for six years, Kelly welcomed her husband as her new, permanent co-host last month.
Viewers have been blasting the new version of the show, Live with Kelly and Mark, for often pre-taping its episodes.
The hosts act like the show is live by saying the correct date at the start of the show, as they would for a normal episode.
But at the bottom of the screen, there’s a notice that indicates shows in caps that the show was “previously recorded.”
One upset fan wrote after seeing the notice: “When they changed the host name, the should have changed the title of the programme to Prerecorded with Kelly and Mark.”
Another tweeted: “@kellymarklive here we go it’s not live at least not today! Going down.”
A third commented: “This is so horrible. I can’t believe you’re trying to fool people people are not stupid! Painful to sit though honestly.”
A fourth wrote: “Nice 5-day weekend … pre-recorded Thursday, Friday and Monday. Keep it up and you’ll have a permanent 7-day weekend!”
The U.S. Sun recently reported that showrunners had even filmed multiple episodes two months in advance.
On April 26, Live with Kelly and Mark pre-taped the June 19 episode.
Then, on April 27, production filmed the episode that is scheduled to air on June 26.
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Ken Jennings told Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos that he films multiple episodes of the show in one dayCredit: NBC
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Kelly and Mark have recently come under fire for pre-taping some episodes of their own show, as it’s not a game program and has ‘live’ in its titleCredit: ABC
