59 Facts About Ken Jennings

Kenneth Wayne Jennings III was born on May 23,1974 and is an American game show host, author, and former game show contestant.

Ken Jennings was born on May 23,1974, in Edmonds, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.

Ken Jennings's father was a lawyer employed internationally, and Jennings spent 15 years growing up in South Korea and Singapore where his father worked.

Ken Jennings played on the school's quizbowl team, at one point serving as captain, and graduated in 2000 with a double major in English and computer science.

In that first episode, Ken Jennings' entire winning streak nearly ended before it even began.

Ken Jennings' run was interrupted by the off-season break, 2004 Kids' Week, the Tournament of Champions, the 2004 United States presidential election and the College Championship.

Ken Jennings did not participate in the Tournament of Champions, as invitations are extended only to champions who have been defeated.

Zerg, whom Ken Jennings called a "formidable opponent", finished in third place on the next show.

On December 1,2004, the day after his defeat, Jennings made a guest appearance at the start of the broadcast, during which host Alex Trebek acknowledged his success and enumerated the various game show records he had broken.

Ken Jennings has received a good deal of American media coverage.

On September 13,2004, Ken Jennings appeared on the daytime talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Ken Jennings appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to present Letterman's "Top Ten List".

Ken Jennings appeared again on the program on the night his final show was televised, in addition to interview segments airing that night on local late evening news programming and on Nightline.

TV Guide featured a segment of "The Top Ten TV Moments of 2004", in which Ken Jennings' loss placed third.

Ken Jennings won the $500,000 prize for second place, but as a result of the Ultimate Tournament, Rutter temporarily displaced him as the highest overall winner of money on game shows.

Ken Jennings has said he is still happy with his second-place finish.

The winner of the competition was Watson, winning $1 million for two charities, while Ken Jennings was second and Rutter was third, receiving $300,000 and $200,000, respectively.

Ken Jennings made it to the finals along with Brad Rutter and Roger Craig.

Ken Jennings placed second, winning a $100,000 prize, and Rutter won first place, securing a $1-million prize.

Team Ken finished second to the team captained by Rutter, with Jennings winning $100,000, one-third of the $300,000 second-place prize.

Ken Jennings won the championship to be crowned with the "Greatest of All Time" title and a first-place prize of $1 million.

Ken Jennings held this role until the start of the show's 39th season.

Ken Jennings's episodes aired from January 11,2021 to February 19,2021.

Ken Jennings has written five books for his children's series, Junior Genius Guides.

Ken Jennings appeared on The Colbert Report on September 13,2006.

Ken Jennings noted, as he had done earlier that day on NPR's Talk of the Nation, that since his streak, people "seem to have an extra-hard trivia question" in case they run into him.

Ken Jennings has written and edited literature and mythology questions for the National Academic Quiz Tournaments, a quiz bowl organization.

Ken Jennings has read questions as a moderator at the 2005,2006, and 2009 NAQT High School National Championship Tournaments in Chicago.

Ken Jennings narrated the audiobook version of Alex Trebek's autobiography, The Answer Is.

Ken Jennings's rendition was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 63rd Grammy Awards.

Ken Jennings appeared on the first two episodes of the NBC game show 1 vs 100 on October 13 and 20,2006, as a mob member.

Ken Jennings left the show with $714.29, his share of a $35,000 prize shared among 49 mob members.

Ken Jennings returned to the show for a special "Last Man Standing" episode aired on February 9,2007.

Ken Jennings was eliminated on the final question, which asked which of three people had been married the most times; he answered King Henry VIII, while the correct answer was Larry King.

In 2007, Ken Jennings was invited to be a contestant on the game show Grand Slam hosted by Dennis Miller and Amanda Byram, a Sony Pictures production.

Ken Jennings, seeded second behind Brad Rutter, won the tournament and became the 2007 Grand Slam Champion after defeating Ogi Ogas in the finals.

Ken Jennings would have become the show's second million dollar winner had he decided to risk it.

From 2008 to 2009, Ken Jennings appeared on GSN on Fridays for the trivia game Stump the Master, where home viewers submitted questions via the GSN website.

Four callers were put on hold and Ken Jennings selected from one of the categories.

When Ken Jennings was right, the jackpot was increased by $1,000.

Ken Jennings has appeared on multiple episodes of Doug Loves Movies, hosted by Doug Benson, and has won a few times.

Ken Jennings appeared on two other Sony Pictures Television game shows, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, as a frequent expert for the lifeline "Ask the Expert", and taped a pilot for the proposed 2009 CBS revival of Pyramid, titled Million Dollar Pyramid.

Ken Jennings appeared on Millionaire in 2014 as a contestant during Guinness World Records Edition themed week, where he won $100,000 after deciding to walk away on his $250,000 question.

Ken Jennings appeared on the second-season premiere of 500 Questions on May 26,2016 and was eliminated on the fourth question by winter 2012 college champion Monica Thieu, leaving with no winnings.

Ken Jennings appeared on an episode of @midnight aired May 15,2017, during the fourth season, which he won.

In November 2020, it was announced that Ken Jennings would be one of the 3 chasers on the ABC revival of The Chase, hosted by Sara Haines with Rutter and Holzhauer as the other chasers, joined by Mark Labbett in season 2.

Ken Jennings won the rookie division of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 2006.

Ken Jennings served as the award's presenter, becoming the first contestant to present an award to himself.

Every Tuesday, beginning July 4,2006, Ken Jennings sent out an email containing seven questions.

Ken Jennings is an active Twitter user, and some of his tweets have been subjects of controversy.

Ken Jennings again faced controversy when on May 31,2017, he tweeted a joke involving Barron Trump, the youngest child of US President Donald Trump.

In December 2020, Ken Jennings offered an apology on Twitter for some of his past comments.

In January 2021, Ken Jennings faced controversy again when his friend and podcast co-host John Roderick posted a Twitter thread where he discussed preventing his nine-year-old daughter from eating until she learned to open a can of baked beans using a manual can opener, which he approximated took six hours.

The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2021 that Ken Jennings was intended to be Alex Trebek's successor, but his social media controversies hurt his standing, with poor ratings from focus groups and Sony executives fearing his selection could cause backlash.

Ken Jennings has been an active member of the trivia app FleetWit, regularly playing in the live trivia races.

Ken Jennings agreed to a deal with Microsoft to promote its Encarta encyclopedia software.

Ken Jennings is engaged in speaking deals through the Massachusetts-based speakers' agency American Program Bureau.

Ken Jennings and his wife Mindy have a son, Dylan, born November 22,2002, and a daughter, Caitlin, born November 13,2006.

Ken Jennings is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.