I just saw this movie a couple days ago, and Van Doren reminded me of Jennings in a lot of ways. What's your proof?
shareOn the gameshow Jeopardy all the contestants are given the answers. The contestants have to provide the question.
Example.
Trebeck. He was the first U.S. President
contestant. Who was George Washington?
see Tebrek provided the answer.
...than most people seem to be. The reason is that Jeopardy only recently allowed contestants to be on longer than a week. If you were lucky they'd invite you back for a tournament of champions. I would be willing to bet that quite a few people would've been on even longer than Mr. Jennings.
shareI think that was proven when he lost the Tournament of Champions.
I've fallen and I can't get up.
I've heard that the contestants are told the category names well before the taping of the show, and that they are allowed to research the subjects accordingly. I guess this isn't "rigging," but I imagine it might make the game easier than it appears.
What made Jennings so good was not his knowledge of trivia, but the fact that he worked with quiz bowls. Any high school quiz bowler will tell you its timing that makes all the difference; most kids know the answers, but the ability to buzz in immediately after the question is read is what truly makes a winner. See "Better Luck Tomorrow" for an example of this.
They do not give you the categories ahead of time on "Jeopardy!". A colleague of mine was on the show and can confirm this. If they did, then someone would have actually gotten a question right on "World Series MVPs" this past week! After all, they've only been handing out that award since 1955, so it's not too lengthy of a subject to research, and a pretty direct one when you consider the category topic.
But you are absolutely right on the timing issue. Probably all three contestants know the answer to about 80-90% of the $200 and $400 questions, but Jennings had better timing at ringing in and getting control of the board. And once he had control he'd look for the Daily Doubles.
Most contestants start with the question of lowest value in a category and make their way down the column. Jennings would go right to the $1200 clue, knowing there was a higher probability that this is where the Daily Double would be. I think this threw people off for other reasons. I remember a "Jeopardy!" contestant in the early 1990s who would jump from one category to another and he was a five-time champion.
Also, in every single show he was on you would see several instances where Jennings knew he knew the answer, but couldn't immediately recall it. No matter, he'd ring in right after Trebek finished asking the question, then would pause for a few seconds to find the answer in his head before his time expired. If you had to ring in and answer immediately on "Jeopardy!" then Jennings wouldn't have been nearly as successful as he was.
Jennings obviously has a wide range of knowledge, but it was his strategies in playing the game that made him as successful as he was. Of course his strategy also cost him on his last show as he had a big lead and blew it on both Daily Doubles in the second round (not to mention Final Jeopardy) en route to his loss.
What is Ken Jennings' innate human fallibility?
shareI think Ken Jennings a terrible person. He enjoyed humiliating his opponents. There was one time when he had thousands and the others had nothing or only a few hundred. His bet on either Final or Daily Double was huge! He could have won with a smaller bet. I also think he "threw" the Final Jeapordy where he lost. He also was quoted in a book in which he made fun of the show.
shareKen has the chops. Why not show 'em off?
shareI dont believe he was ever given the answer and timing IS everything. He admitted as such, but what I do believe is he threw the last question on Final. Maybe he wanted to quit Maybe they offered him something to quit (Didn't he come out with a book?) I mean he is the "Jeopardy Guy" but Fed Ex was a pretty lame answer to a question asking which white collor seasonal job only works 4 months out of the year
share