JeopardyFilter

July 13, 2004 4:59 PM

So when is Ken Jennings going to lose (or quit)? This is not a rhetorical question. All his shows were taped in February. After going through 60 competitors in front of thousands of audience members, how can this still be a well-kept secret? (spoilers inside, hopefully...)
posted by PrinceValium to media & arts (10 comments total)

Are any clips of his performance available online, maybe via bittorrent? I keep forgetting to watch.
posted by Big Fat Tycoon at 5:26 PM on July 13, 2004

Pure speculation: perhaps he retires without ever losing. If he does that, there's no competitors or audience who ever saw him lose, who can say, "he loses on the show taped on such and such a date."
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 5:32 PM on July 13, 2004

^
||
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|| - Really great idea, if it's true.
posted by BlueTrain at 5:52 PM on July 13, 2004

Not an answer to your question, but after poking around a bit I found that Ken is posting in the Jeopardy thread over at Television Without Pity.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 5:58 PM on July 13, 2004

Followup: one rumor is posted in the above-linked TWoP thread here.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:10 PM on July 13, 2004

I'm guessing that non-disclosure agreements may be required of contestants. Although how an entire audience has kept its collective mouth shut is impressive.
posted by pmurray63 at 7:10 AM on July 14, 2004

They tape two weeks of shows per week when they're taping, so that they get almost 6 months ahead. Then they take off for the summer. That's why they're showing shows from February now. And they haven't started taping the new season yet.

It's not hard to believe that Ken won all the way up to the hiatus, and is still the reigning champ. There would have been no loss for an audience to see.
posted by smackfu at 2:23 PM on July 14, 2004

From Usenet:


The current season of Jeopardy will air new shows through July 23.
From then until sometime right after Labor Day they will air repeats.

Jeopardy wrapped taping of this season's shows in April, at which time
they also taped the first ten shows of next season.

As of the July 23rd show Ken Jennings will have won 38 shows, and when
they return in the fall he will be seen to win the first ten shows of
the new season, with a cumulative total winning somewhere around 1.5
million.

They will resume taping for the 2004-5 season sometime in August, when
Ken Jennings will return to continue as undefeated champion for who
knows how long. So yes, Ken is home in Utah right now, waiting until
August.
posted by calwatch at 11:21 PM on July 14, 2004

Incidentally, J! doesn't require a non-disclosure agreement of their contestants, which is odd considering all the other things they make you sign and otherwise agree to. They just ask you not to tell anyone how you did.

And the studio audience largely consists of retirees on outings...even if they talked about what they saw (and they're asked not to as well) I doubt it would find its way to teh Intarweb too easily.
posted by Vidiot at 8:08 AM on July 15, 2004

Currently, Jennings has $1,321,660. So, it would take about $180,000 to get to the $1.5 million range, an average of about $18,000 per episode, which is actually low for Jennings. (Now, if someone just saw first two numbers in the cumulative total, then it could be up to $28,000 per epiosde, which would be average for Jennings.)

Looks like Usenet comes through again.
posted by calwatch at 10:14 PM on July 23, 2004