Earlier this month,Jeopardy!contestantKen Jennings was crownedthe “Greatest Of All Time”champion after besting fellow competitors “Jeopardy James” HolzhauerandBrad Rutter— and he says it wasn’t at all easy keeping the big win a secret.
As for besting former champs Holzhauer and Rutter, he says they were fierce competitors. “Brad is the most tenaciousJeopardy!player I’ve ever seen — best I’ve ever played. He just never got his footing. It may be just as simple as the fact that he found a ton of very hard Daily Doubles. Like, I would have missed a lot of those too. He just happened to be the one to who took the bullet.”
(When Rutter landed yet another Daily Double on the third episode, keeping it safe from high-stakes better Holzhauer, he turned to Jennings, 45, and said, “You’re welcome!”)
Carol Kaelson/ Sony Pictures Entertainment
Still, despite the friendly competitiveness, he says he and Holzhauer have actually become close friends. “We actually met briefly in Seattle, when I hosted a trivia night at a local music festival, although I didn’t remember,” Jennings says. “But he reached our after his show and had some questions aboutJeopardy!fame. And yeah, we’ve actually become very good friends, even though we have very differentJeopardy!styles.”
Jennings does think that the show will start seeing plenty more Holzhauer imitators in the near future — but isn’t sure they’ll be able to pull off big wins like he did.
Alex Trebek and Ken Jennings.Eric McCandless/ABC
Jokes aside, Jennings does talk about how being on the Alex Trebek-hosted show 17 years ago changed his life forever — and for the better.
“I was kind of a borderline unhappy, unskilled computer programmer before I went on the show, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Thanks toJeopardy!, I turned it around,” he says. “I’m now a freelance writer, which I love, and speak on a podcast twice a week.”
Most importantly, he got to be there to watch his kids (son Dylan, 17, and daughter Katie, 14) grow up.
“I got to be home with my kids the whole time they were growing up, which is utterly priceless,” Jennings says. “I mean, that means more to me than anyJeopardy!check, honestly.”
source: people.com
