The ‘Jeopardy!’ Answer That Ended Ken Jennings’ 74-Game Winning Streak Was a Shocker

If there’s one person who’s become synonymous with Jeopardy!, other than the late, great Alex Trebek, it’s Ken Jennings. Jennings managed to score an impressive 74 wins during his time on Jeopardy!, walking away with a whopping $2.5 million in rewards. Later, he would co-host Jeopardy! with Malim Biyalik following Trebek’s passing, recently ascending to full-time host. But the way that streak ended is a genuine surprise, especially considering Jennings’ display of near-encyclopedic knowledge. 20 years later, it still remains a landmark moment in Jeopardy! – but not for the reasons you may think.

Jennings’ final game during his initial run took place on November 30, 2004, where he was competing against Nancy Zerg and David Hankins. During the Final Jeopardy! round, which featured the category “Business and Industry,” the question posed to the contestants was: “Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.” Jennings wrote down “What is FedEx?” as his guess…and was promptly outranked by Zerg, who wrote the correct answer: “What is H&R Block?” She won by a single dollar, marking the end of an era.

The Reaction to Jennings’ Loss Was Huge

The reaction to Jennings’ loss was huge, as the Jeopardy! audience audibly gasped after it was revealed that he had lost. Zerg, for the most part, seemed shocked that she had managed to win, with Trebek even referring to her as a “giant killer”. Jennings also took the whole thing in stride, giving Zerg a hug and calling her a “formidable opponent.” Still, it’s shocking that he mixed up FedEx and H&R Block, since previous episodes of Jeopardy! featured his knowledge of seemingly obscure trivia. He was one of the few people who knew about Leif Ericson!

Even though Jennings’ winning streak was at an end, he’d return to Jeopardy! for future games. The first time was during the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, where he competed against fellow long-runners Brad Rutter and Jerome Vered. Rutter ended up as the winner, with Jennings taking second place; this had the unintended side effect of Rutter also eclipsing Jennings’ total prize winnings, since Rutter ending up holding nearly $5 million due to his consecutive wins.

Ken Jennings Would Compete on Future Episodes of ‘Jeopardy!’, Including Tournaments

Rutter and Jennings would also compete in the “IBM Challenge” in 2011, where they played a game of Jeopardy! against an IMB computer named “Watson”. Watson ended up winning the challenge, though Jennings turned out to continually be a good sport; for the final question, he wrote on the board “I for one welcome our new computer overlords” – a cheeky reference to The Simpsons. Jennings even went on to write about the experience on Slate, noting that playing against Watson was immensely different from other Jeopardy! games:

During my 2004 Jeopardy! streak, I was accustomed to mowing down players already demoralized at having to play a long-standing winner like me. But against Watson I felt like the underdog… At the end of the first game, Watson had what seemed like an insurmountable lead of more than $30,000.

Jennings would participate in three more Jeopardy! tournaments: Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades in 2014, Jeopardy! All-Star Games, where he formed a team consisting of other Jeopardy! champions, and Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time in 2020. He ended up coming in second place to Brad Ruttler during the first two tournaments, but won the Greatest Of All Time competition – cementing his place in Jeopardy! history.

Ken Jennings’ Winning Streak Changed the Course of ‘Jeopardy’

It’s safe to say that Ken Jennings made history more than once during his Jeopardy! contestant days. However, it led to a major shakeup in the show. Jennings was among the ‘super champions’, aka Jeopardy! players who’ve won more than ten games in a role. This was made possible due to Jeopardy! lifting a rule in 2003 that only allowed contestants a five-game win. Recent episodes have pushed a focus on super champions, resulting in Jeopardy! fans tuning out & a former contestant saying that the show needs to reinstate the five-game limit. Regardless of what one thinks of the current state of Jeopardy!, Ken Jennings’ winning streak, and the way it ended, is one for the history books. Jeopardy! airs every weeknight on ABC in the U.S. Episodes are also available to stream on YouTube TV