<em>Jeopardy!</em> host, Ken Jennings recently revealed the biggest difference between himself and Alex Trebek: the way he connects with contestants.
While Trebek would meet the contestants for the first time during the introductions on the quiz series, Jennings revealed to KUOW that he prefers to take a moment to introduce himself to the players before the show starts. The former Jeopardy! champion says he understands that appearing on the series often fulfills a lifelong dream for many of the players, which can bring up big emotions for them. By introducing himself upfront, he hopes to ease any anxieties that may arise in them. He observed that he wants the players to feel he was on their side, wanting to tell them: “We’re going to do great. It’s actually going to be fun when you look back on this, believe it or not.” It is a small gesture that demonstrates Trebek’s legacy on the series has not only been preserved with his successor, but that the host position going to a former player enriches the role.
Jennings Started a New Tradition as Host of ‘Jeopardy!’
His experience as a player makes Jennings a better host on the series. His impulse to meet the players to help ease their anxieties is not only a kind gesture. One could also argue that if the players feel more relaxed prior to the show’s start, they will likely perform better under intense pressure. One thing Jennings has learned as the host of Jeopardy! is that it is difficult to tell which contestants will perform well once the camera is on them. He observed that people who do well on the written test can freeze up when the game show gets going because the environment is overwhelming and “Jeopardy! moves so fast!”
Jennings’ empathy for the players isn’t the only thing that enriches his role as host. The trivia king became known not only as the player to earn the highest amount in regular-season winnings, but also as one of the contestants who took on the IBM Watson computer system in 2011. Jennings also still holds the record for the longest winning streak in the series, with a total of 74 games won in a row. Even before he earned his reputation on Jeopardy!, Jennings had a quiz-based career writing a trivia column for Parade Magazine titled “Kennections,” which he recently compiled into a book, The Complete Kennections: 5,000 Questions in 1,000 Puzzles. His passion for trivia, deep encyclopedic knowledge, and empathy for the players all come together to make Jennings a worthy successor to the role of host on Jeopardy!.
Jennings Reflected on the Importance of Trivia in the Age of A.I.
For someone whose career has been made off of trivia knowledge, Jennings is also uniquely positioned to speak about the important role that trivia plays in society. Observing that, despite its name, trivia is far from “trivial,” Jennings also noted that quiz games tend to bring people together, as the facts are drawn from collective cultural knowledge. He continued, “Before the age of specialization, this was the kind of thing that unified us as a culture. I like to think it has the potential to do it again.”
Speaking about his time playing against the IBM computer, Jennings noted how “demoralizing” it felt at the time. “Knowing stuff was the one thing that I thought made us special and human,” the trivia champion observed. His fear of people forgoing knowledge as they rely on technology has only increased with the rise of smartphones and ChatGPT. Jennings drew an eerie picture of the current online climate, noting how new predictive A.I. technology is, and how increasingly unreliable it can be providing correct responses. In fact, he worries that where it stands, computers now “hallucinate” answers, providing incorrect and imaginary information that can have real-world consequences. As Jennings pointed out, “the wrong answers could be life and death.” With his concerns about collective knowledge and human experience, and his empathy for the players he hosts on Jeopardy!, it is clear that Jennings is a worthy steward to lead the quiz show into the future.
Season 42 of Jeopardy! will premiere September 8. For the first time ever, Jeopardy! will be available to stream the next day on Hulu and Peacock.
