Jeopardy!’s Ken Jennings stumbles over major show detail on-air as fans call out host for being ‘incorrect’

JEOPARDY! fans have clocked Ken Jennings for getting his game show lore mixed up while hosting.

Ken, 49, seemingly misused the term “super-champion” on Thursday’s episode, ruffling some hardcore fans’ feathers.

Ken Jennings kicked off Season 40 this week with a tournament for past contestantsCredit: Jeopardy!

In Jill Tucker’s original game she was ‘pitted against two super-champions’ as Ken explained on ThursdayCredit: Jeopardy!

However, the treasured term is for 10-day winners – Brian and Zach won six and seven games respectivelyCredit: ABC
Jeopardy!’s Season 40 kicked off with contestants from Season 37 who are battling it out in a three-week Second Chance tournament.

The contestants all initially lost their first games in 2020 or 2021.

Each week ends with a two-part finals and the winner gets $35K and a slot in a subsequent tournament, which will air until December.

Hari Parameswaran, a hardware engineer from Cupertino, California, is facing Jill Tucker, an operations manager from Mulino, Oregon, and David Maybury, a magnetic engineer originally from Richmond, Virginia, to advance.

During Thursday’s interview segment, Ken brought up Week 1 finalist Jill’s initial 2021 match.

Jill had stiff competition- she went up against seven-time champion Brian Chang and Zach Newkirk, who won the match eventually becomming a six-time champion

Ken remarked: “Jill, in your first game with us, you found yourself between two super-champs.

“In Brian Chang and Zach Newkirk”

Jill replied she was a bit “starstruck,” but her rivals in that match could not have been more “generous and kind.”

However, some hardcore fans caught wind of Ken’s terminology being questionable.

‘I THOUGHT THE TERM WAS FOR…’

A “super-champion” is a title given to contestants who exceed 10 consecutive wins, according to NPR.

“Super-champs” are players with “double-digit victories,” The Ringer noted.

The revered mile-marker has also been noted to be ten-plus wins on Jeopardy.com.

So the snafu, however minor, wasn’t lost on those in the know.

“So, Jill was between two ‘super-champs’ in her original #Jeopardy appearance?” one fan questioned on X, formerly Twitter.

“I thought the show had decided that term referred to winners of 10 or more games?”

“I thought the same thing!” replied another.

HALL OF SUPER CHAMPIONS

A “super-champion,” according to gamehsows.fandom, “refers to a champion who has won 10 or more consecutive wins in Jeopardy!.”

There are a total of 16 super-champions ever since longtime showrunner Harry Friedman made the savvy decision to lift the five-day win limit in 2003.

The first super-champion was none-other than Ken with his still-unsurpassed 74 wins in 2004.

A year later, David Madden won 19 games, but after that there was no champion with ten or more wins for about nine years

In 2014, Arthur Chu ended the drought with 11 wins, then came Julia Collins with 20 wins.

In 2015, Matt Jackson won 13 games, in 2016, Seth Wilson had 12 wins and in 2017 Austin Rogers won 12 games.

In 2019, James Holzhauer became the show’s second multi-millionaire in regular play, having destroyed several show records in his 32 games (the only player to ever, and regularly, win $100K in one game).

Jason Zuffranieri won 19 games shortly after, and then came the diluge of big winners after the pandemic.

Matt Amodio (38 wins), Amy Schneider (40 wins), Mattea Roach (23 wins) Ryan Long (16 wins) Ray LaLonde (13 wins) and Cris Pannullo (21 wins) soon followed.

EVERYTHING TO KNOW ABOUT SEASON 40

Jeopardy!’s monumental Season 40 will run until July 26, 2024.

Because of the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes with actors and writers unable to settle fair pay negotiations, co-host Mayim is officially off the board.

It was announced on Monday that she is going to remain uninvolved until the strikes end and only Ken will host.

She bowed out in solidarity with the strikers, a big shakeup since she and Ken were tapped to split hosting after Alex Trebek’s death in 2020.

A source earlier told The Messenger that Mayim will likely not be back until the new year, if not longer.

“She wasn’t fired,” the insider shared.

“She’s choosing to stand with her union, and because of that, she was told it is unlikely she will return for the rest of the year, even if the strike is resolved before then.”

Mayim is a member of the striking actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA.

If the strikes don’t end by 2024 – and since episodes tape two months in advance – Mayim will not return until at least the new year if not next season (or next fall).

Ken being the only host isn’t the only huge change this season.

Aside from not having new contestants and no Mayim, the other major change is the clues.

The game show is re-using questions from past seasons while without its writers, but most of the questions did not appear to have previously aired.

Showrunner Michael Davies explained on the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast that it “wouldn’t be fair to have new contestants making their first appearance” on the show with material that isn’t original or that was written pre-strike.

“The material that we’re gonna be using is a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database and material that is being redeployed from multiple, multiple seasons of the show.”

The 2023 Tournament of Champions will not happen not until the strikes are over.

Several Season 39 champs, including Ray, Cris, Hannah Wilson, and Ben Chan, said they would not participate in the TOC until the strikes are concluded.

Davies also announced a bump in consolation prizes for the upcoming season (when regular episodes resume) and said that he admires and misses the show’s beloved writers.

The news caused a scathing response from Masters winner James Holzhauer, who took to the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to call out the show.

“If you don’t have time to listen, here’s the executive summary of today’s announcement,” James, 39, wrote, sharing a link to the podcast episode.

“1:00-2:00: Jeopardy’s writers are invaluable and we couldn’t produce the show without them,” he continued.

“2:00-15:00: Here is how we will produce the upcoming season without them.”

Meanwhile, Ken has faced backlash from some fans and former players for his decision to cross the picket line.

Ken has kept relatively quiet on the subject besides resharing a statement from the show’s executive producer referencing how the late Alex continued hosting during the 2007 to 2008 writers’ strike.

Mayim is also being replaced by Ken on Celebrity Jeopardy! which airs on ABC for the entire next season.

Season 2 of Celebrity Jeopardy! is set to air on September 27 and its first slate of stars was announced on Thursday.

Her exit marks Ken’s first time hosting all programming for Jeopardy! and some fans even think the largely preferred former champ should get the role solo at this point.