Who Is Ken Jennings? by Kirsten Anderson & Who HQ

Author:Kirsten Anderson & Who HQ [Anderson, Kirsten & Who HQ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2021-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4

What Is a Winning Streak?

Ken won his next two games. And then he won all five games the next day. His winnings for the two days came to $266,158.

He had to fly back to California the following week to tape at least one more show. Ken found it hard to believe that he could win another game.

But he won all ten games the next week! That meant he had to once again return to Los Angeles the following week.

That created a problem. What would he do about work? The games Ken was taping wouldn’t actually appear on TV for months. Jeopardy! contestants aren’t allowed to tell anyone whether they won or lost. Ken didn’t even tell his parents. But he had to tell his boss why he kept taking even more time off. She agreed to keep it a secret.

Ken went back to Los Angeles the next week and won another ten games. He kept winning throughout the spring. Still, no one knew his secret. Most of the time he was just Ken Jennings, ordinary computer programmer. But for a couple of days each week or so, he had another identity: Ken Jennings, supersmart trivia master, who broke Jeopardy! records with each game he won.

Some games were close. But he won many easily. Ken didn’t think he was necessarily that much smarter than the other contestants. He guessed that he just had an advantage from having played the game before. He remembered his first game and how quickly it had moved. Many players who probably knew just as much as he did would spend the whole game struggling to get the buzzer timing down. Because it was now familiar to him, he felt more confident.

The episode featuring Ken’s first game aired on television on June 2, 2004. He gathered all his friends and family to watch the episode in the lobby of his office building. It was the first time any of them found out that he had won even one game. By that time, he had actually won forty-eight games! It was by far the longest winning streak in the show’s history.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.