It’s official: Ken Jennings isJeopardy!‘s GOAT!
On the fourth episode in the game show’sGreatest of All Timetournamentagainst fellowJeopardy!greats James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter, Jennings, 45, took home the crown.
“It has taken 15 years for Ken Jennings to finally answer the question, ‘Is he as good as he appeared to be in that great run onJeopardy?’” hostAlex Trebeksaid after Jennings’ win.
In 2004, Jennings won 74 consecutive games.
Jennings was awarded $1 million, while Holzhauer and Rutter were each awarded $250,000.
Heading into Tuesday’s match, Jennings had two wins under his belt, meaning he only needed one more to end the tournament. Holzhauer came into Tuesday’s game with one win, after hevoluntarily lost some pointsduring Thursday night’s match to honor Trebek.
James Holzhauer, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.Eric McCandless/abc
TheGOATtournament wasn’t the first meeting between Jennings and Rutter. The two contestants have played each other several times in the past, and Jennings lost every time — save for theIBM Challengein 2011, when theyboth lostto the Watson computer.
Ken Jennings.Eric McCandless/abc
The competition comes amidst Trebek’songoing battle with pancreatic cancer.
Trebek was diagnosed in March 2019 andfinished one round of treatmentin August before revealing in September onGood Morning Americathat he was once againundergoing chemotherapy.
Alex Trebek.Eric McCandless/abc
“I was doing so well and my numbers went down to the equivalent of a normal human being who does not have pancreatic cancer, so we were all very optimistic,” he said at the time. “They said, ‘Good, we’re going to stop chemo, we’ll start you on immunotherapy,’ and I lost about 12 lbs. in a week and my numbers went sky-high, much higher than they were when I was first diagnosed.”
And while Trebek said recently that once he’s retired from his hosting duties heplans to “drink” and “work around the house,”a co-worker of Trebek’stold PEOPLEin December that Trebek “has no plans to quit, and is absolutely not announcing his retirement [anytime soon].”
source: people.com
