What a way to end the week! Not only did Ken Jennings win his 38th consecutive game, but he set another record: highest one-day total. On the Friday, July 23rd show, Ken won an unprecedented $75,000, bringing his jackpot to a whopping $1,321,660.
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?JEOPARDY!?CHAMPION ENDS
TWENTIETH SEASON ON A RECORD HIGH
Ken Jennings? One-Day Total of $75,000
Smashes Previous Mark
(CULVER CITY, CA) July 24, 2004 ? On Friday, July 23, long-running champion Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City finished the regular season of JEOPARDY! (and his 38th consecutive show) by setting a new one-day record. Jennings won a whopping $75,000, eclipsing the previous high mark set by Brian Weikle of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who earned $52,000 on April 14, 2003.
Friday?s win brings Jennings? total earnings to $1,321,660 and makes him the highest cumulative winner in JEOPARDY! history. Brad Rutter of Lancaster, Pennsylvania previously held the title after winning the Million Dollar Masters Tournament and a total of $1,155,102.
By all accounts, Ken now holds every JEOPARDY! record for winnings? and he?ll be back to try for more. From July 26 ? September 3, JEOPARDY! will present encore shows of some of the highlights from the past year, notably the College Championship from Yale University, the Teen Tournament and Power Players and Kids Week from Washington, D.C. Then, on Monday, September 6, Ken Jennings returns to defend his championship in his 39th appearance, kicking off the 21st season of JEOPARDY!
Jennings, who has developed a celebrity-like following since his June 2 debut, juggles his current job developing software for CHG Companies, Inc., with multiple media requests. He has been featured on the front page of USA Today, presented the ?Top Ten List? on Late Show with David Letterman, shared the couch with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show and was named ?Person of the Week? by ABC World News Tonight. However, easy-going Jennings says he is just as comfortable staying at home with his wife Mindy and playing with their year-and-a-half-old son Dylan and dog Banjo.
A JEOPARDY! rule change introduced at the beginning of Season 20 allows contestants to continue playing as long as they keep winning. Previously, champions had been limited to five wins.
JEOPARDY!, a winner of 24 Emmy awards since its debut in 1984, was recently listed among ?The Greatest Game Shows of All Time? by TV Guide, and continues to be a ratings champion. The series is the #1-rated quiz show in syndication, and has held that title for over 1,000 weeks.
JEOPARDY! is produced by Sony Pictures Television, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company, and is distributed domestically by King World Productions, Inc. The U.S. episodes are distributed internationally by CBS Broadcast International (CBI). King World International Productions, a subsidiary of CBI, sells and produces format versions worldwide.
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