‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Claim What It’s Really Like to Compete Against Ken Jennings
It’s no surprise that Jeopardy! fans have an insatiable appetite for knowledge. And sometimes, enquiring minds just want to know what it’s like to compete against Ken Jennings.
As pop culture enthusiasts know, decades before Jennings, 50, took the reins of the game show following longtime host Alex Trebek‘s death in 2020, the host was a Jeopardy! contestant himself in 2004. Jennings quickly went viral — before such a term existed — due to his record-breaking winning streak, during which he won Jeopardy! a whopping 74 consecutive games in a row. He also became the highest-earning game show contestant across the board with more than $2.5 million in winnings.
With all of those Jeopardy! episodes under his belt — plus all of the special competitions he participated in on the show — one Redditor posed the question: “Did anyone here face Ken Jennings?” Specifically, the user wanted to know, if any of the Jeopardy! subreddit members went up against Jennings in his original 75-show run. (Jennings was eventually defeated by Nancy Zerg on his 75th consecutive episode.)
While no one on Reddit claimed to be one of the many contestants who went head-to-head with the Jeopardy! giant during his iconic run, several users claimed to have faced off against Jennings on other game shows or quiz battles.
According to one user, they squared up against Jennings on an “unaired episode of The Chase.”
“It was fun. Had a nice interaction with him, and he’s naturally very funny,” the Redditor, u/DavidCMaybury, wrote. “It wasn’t aired because it was a rehearsal episode before they started taping season 2. So they did everything like a real episode to practice, just nothing counted.”
Another user, u/brosbeforetouhous, claimed to have gone up against Jennings in “a quiz bowl practice once.”
“He smoked everyone on a tossup on the WWE Intercontinental Title,” the fan wrote.
Another claimed to have also competed against Jennings in a quiz bowl.
“I actually went up against him in a team Quiz Bowl event at TCONA* (the Trivia Championships of North America) in….either 2012 or 2013,” u/pyralspite74 claimed. “Ken was a beast – a friendly beast to be sure, but a beast.”
As for Zerg, she told CBS’ The Early Show back in 2004 that defeating Jennings on Jeopardy! was “the most surreal feeling.”
While other contestants “lost the game before they left the parking structure,” she said — “When they saw Ken, they said, ‘I’m playing for second'” — Zerg knew she had a shot. “I said, ‘Somebody is going to beat him; it might as well be me.”
