The Man Who Knew Too Much 655
theodp writes "For thrilling competition, Slate says the Tour de France pales next to the 25-game reign of Jeopardy! supercontestant Ken Jennings. The 30-year-old software engineer has won a total of $788,960, beating the previous record-holder by a margin of over $600,000. Watching KenJen play is like witnessing any great athlete in top form: He's the Michael Jordan of trivia, the Seabiscuit of geekdom, and his antics have once again made Jeopardy! required viewing. (Update: 26 wins and $828,960: 'When Jennings ran the Marvel comics category during the second round, host Alex Trebek asked: Have you done anything besides read comics? It pays to be a nerd, Jennings responded.')"
Fun fact: (Score:3, Funny)
movie? (Score:5, Funny)
Oh lord, I hope they don't make a movie about this guy forty years from now and expose him as some kind of patsy in an elaborate scheme to sell more vitamin juice for old people.
He's on the wrong show. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:5, Informative)
And as far as the record goes, an important factor is that until recently after 5 wins a champion was retired, and would only come back for a tournament of champions. So he's the first "champion" to be given this opportunity.
Which is not to imply that he's not preternaturally smart, just that there's more to it than just trivia capacity.
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:4, Interesting)
Besides, earning yourself 1,000,000 over a months time going head to head with 52 other people, you take more than just money away from that experience - you take away satisfaction.
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:5, Informative)
When did they change the rules? It used to be that you could be on 5 times... max, at which point you retired as an "undefeated 5 time champion".
Re:He's on the wrong show. (Score:5, Funny)
Proud? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Proud? (Score:5, Insightful)
Any one fact by itself is "useless trivia". But assorted "useless trivia" questions are just a way of gathering a random sampling of the entire body of knowledge that someone has.
If you're going to reliably answer a question about who happened to be president in a given year, then you pretty much have to know the entire chronology of the presidency.
just like a towel (Score:5, Funny)
Just like if you had a towel then you pretty much have to be in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc.
Re:just like a towel (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Proud? (Score:4, Interesting)
I remember when I was having my head shrinked. The psychiatrist gave me a battery of tests. He asked me about 10 'useless trivia' questions, e.g. "Who wrote 'Faust'" (I replied "Goeth", pronounced it just like that, not the German pronunciation.) Another question: "Where is Egypt?" (Africa, of course). I forget the rest.
The shrink was using the questions to gauge my general body of knowledge. Combined with other metrics, a general picture of a person's state of mind and persona develops. Certainly, someone who knows who wrote 'Faust' and where Egypt, and the other questions, is a very different person from someone who knows none of the answers. Plus, the fact that I pronounced "Goethe" the way it is would be pronounced if it were an American name, is telling, as it showed that I obtained that knowledge by reading, rather than through a lecture or a TV show. It also showed I was not German, and had not studied the language to any real degree.
Re:Proud? (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah, yes, you say useless trivia. This proves that useless trivia is far from useless, given the right circumstances. Nothing is not worth knowing.
Re:Proud? (Score:3, Funny)
For example, I know that if you are standed at the North Pole and are starving and are ... and
a) foolish enough to try and kill a polar bear
b) lucky enough to succeed
do NOT eat the liver as it will kill you because it is loaded with Vitamin A (as discovered by some hapless explorers many years ago!).
Re:Proud? (Score:3, Funny)
Afraid of the Canadian Linux user groups/lynch mobs?
Nope, you get frostbite.
You have to take your gloves off to remove the foil.
Re:Proud? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Proud? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Proud? (Score:5, Informative)
Fluid Intelligence is "a natural ability which is not dependant on acquired knowledge" Crystallized Intelligence is "ability dependent on acquired knowledge"
Re:Proud? (Score:4, Interesting)
An important part of what most of us regard as 'intelligence' is the ability to 'see' how things relate to one another and form conclusions about them.
One way to do that is to form an abstraction in your head.
Another way is to form an analogy and relate it to something which you do know.
For example the conclusion: "Fighting a war on two fronts is bad", could be reached either by abstract reasoning along the lines of how a two front war would divide one's resources and increase the chance of loosing the war. Or you could form an analogy to Germany loss in WWI.
The way I see it, they compliment eachother. But naturally, knowledge in itself is not intelligence, because you need a certain amount of abstract skills to be able to recognize an analogy.
I Am Not A Cognitive Psychologist, however.
Re:Proud? (Score:5, Funny)
The way I see it, they compliment eachother.
Abstract Reasoning: Why Analogy, what a nice dress you're wearing today!
Analogy: Abstract, where did you get that scarf? You always show such remarkable taste.
Tonari no Totoro (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Tonari no Totoro (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Tonari no Totoro (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Tonari no Totoro (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Tonari no Totoro (Score:3, Informative)
And there is absolutely -NOTHING- wrong with this, either.
I just watch this guy in absolute awe. I'm pretty good at trivia, but this guy just -owns- the freaking game. 800k, and counting, who -cares- that he's going to pay a 10% tithe to his Church, he's -still- not going to have to work for a while
DON'T BUY IT!! (Score:4, Informative)
Some time next year Disney will release a new and uncut version with subtitles and a new dub.
He's fast on the button (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:He's fast on the button (Score:3, Interesting)
My daughter has started rooting against him - "Enough!", she yells, "Ken is getting boring! Somebody make him lose!"
Personally I think he will just decide to walk once he hits $1000000.
Re:He's fast on the button (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think so. If I were in his place, I would keep going until I lost or they made me leave. There's not too many chances in life to rack up that kind of cash that quickly. He should and probably will take full advantage of it.
Re:He's fast on the button (Score:3, Insightful)
Even ignoring the fact that he's making so much money, I bet he's *enjoying* it. Who wouldn't want to have that much fun and then get paid for it?
Re:He's fast on the button (Score:5, Interesting)
Anybody else notice his slight political slant that he lents into his comments? It was towards the beginning of his reign. But in the last couple of shows, he jokes that he is now in favor of the Bush tax cuts.
Speaking of which, does anyone else notice that Bush advertises on Wheel of Fortune and Kerry on Jeopardy?
Re:He's fast on the button (Score:5, Informative)
Ken has himself said (on the 23rd show I think it was; where a the lady got ~$1800 taken away retrospectivelly for saying 'Olympics' instead of 'Summer Olympics' and didn't end up with enough $$ to challenge him) that his goal is to be invited to become a writer for Jeopardy. All Jeopardy writers are previous contestants (according to Trebek).
Re:He's fast on the button (Score:5, Interesting)
People often forget (or don't realize) that there is a certain amount of strategy involved with Jeopardy! Being smart and a trivia hound is definitely the first thing, but then the buzzer comes into play, and answer selection. (If you're under a minute to go in Double Jeopardy and another contestant is at -$2000, try hard not to pick a $2000 answer right away...)
The idea I like the most to unseat KenJen is to bring back Chuck Forrest, Frank Spangenberg, etc. to compete against him. All out Super Jeopardy! brawl!
-Augie
Re:He's fast on the button (Score:5, Informative)
Speaking from experience
red floyd -- former Jeopardy! contestant
All Hail... (Score:4, Funny)
Incredible (Score:5, Interesting)
I had only heard about him until two days ago when he won his 25th in a row, and his winnings for that day were only $14,000, which was his lowest in all 25 games.
Re:Incredible (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, I really felt bad for the poor guy that day.
-
Maybe he's a robot (Score:4, Interesting)
Brings to mind the recent GSN (Game Show Network) airing on the Michael Larson "Press Your Luck" scandal. This guy learned their random board sequence was actually sets of predictable moves and won what was then large $. Then the network would not pay him, although IMO he did nothing wrong.
Re:Maybe he's a robot (Score:3, Informative)
Not true. The producers tried to weasel out of paying him but could not prove he was cheating, only paying close attention. There is an interesting site here [gscentral.net]
Re:Maybe he's a robot (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Maybe he's a robot (Score:5, Informative)
-Michael Larson at the time was unemployed. He became obsessed with game shows thinking that he could get on one and outsmart the system to win on it.
-He starting watching Press your luck and realized that the pattern was psudorandom and completely reversed engenerred the Random pattern, and even perfected a button pressing method to be as precise as possible
-Mike applied to be a contestant on Press your luck, and eventually got the green light to get on. CBS Producers commented that his demeanor was different from other contestants and they were suspicious of him, but couldn't find anything wrong so he got the go ahead.
-Once on the show, In the beginning, he acted just like any other contestant, and went through the question and answer session pretty unenentfully.
-the spin round, was where it got interesting. The First thing Mike did was get a whammy. It's believed that he did it on purpose to get a feel of the button to the board interaction and also not to look like he was blantently hacking the board.
-after the first whammy, it was all big bucks from there. he would almost always either hit big bucks or another space on the "wheel" that he knew would never popup a whammy. The whole time doing it he was in some sort of trancelike state.
-The second Q&A Session goes underway, already he's won a good amount of money but CBS hasn't seen anything yet. CBS Producers are going nuts in the back, more than aware that he's got the system beat from his first round performance. Peter Tomarken is basicially shocked at this point.
-Second round comes around. Mike basicially spins and never stops, collecting even more spins and more money. it gets to the point that Peter is beyond stunned now and doesn't know how to react to this, CBS is going insane in the back, and the episode is running way out of bounds for it's time.
-Mike breaks the $100,000 barrier. at this point he's won more money than was not only thought possible, but has broke the daytime money winnings record.
-finally, he gets frightened that he's going to screw up and get a whammy, so he passes the spins.
-eventually, some spins he has to take get passed to him. Wins Even more money. until basicially all the spins are gone.
-in the end, CBS "retired" him as champion, and originally would not pay him for cheating. eventually they paid him when their lawyers advised thm that they would lose because their wheel was too predictive. They aired te show as a two day show, because it was so long, they increased the patterns, and added more whammy slots where there originally were none.
Re:Maybe he's a robot (Score:4, Interesting)
Constantly Recording (Score:5, Interesting)
Based on myself, and some others that read here, I suspect a lot of the Slashdot community is the same way. How else could we recall so much about Linux, servers, PC upkeep, and any number of topics that appear here on a regular basis?
I wish Ken the best of luck, and maybe we'll be able to talk to him here, at some point.
Re:Constantly Recording (Score:5, Interesting)
Can you imagine... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Can you imagine... (Score:5, Funny)
Uh.. What is google?
What a change (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone remember the episode of Sliders where Quinn (sp) was on the game show of extremely high level math and science questions (while throwing a ball). The perfect world for geeks
Re:What a change (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is, smart people don't really have time to spend in the spotlight. They're busy learning and doing stuff that matters. Beautiful people have little to do all day after that four hour session at the gym. So they go on E! So they show up on chat shows. So they go to gala premieres with vapid actresses.
Fame is very high maintenance, and for most smart people, it's not worth it.
Heh (Score:4, Insightful)
Note his systematic habit of moving down the categories vertically, one by one, rather than skipping around the board.
Everyone does this.
His nearly preternatural ability to land on the hidden Daily Doubles.
The odds are much more in your favor for hitting the DD if you answer the most questions.
Sounds like Dana Stevens watched one episode and thought she understood. 2/3rds of the article isn't even about Jeopardy! or Ken. It's really amazing these kinds of journalists can get a job.
Ugh (Score:3)
This article isn't a Learning Channel documentary on Jeopardy, sglane. She also didn't explain that Trebek is Canadian or whatever; I know, I know, serious oversight. Come on - she's using a (very small) bit of poetic license to illustrate her point about KenJen's slightly neurotic but lovable habits.
Also note that this piece isn't 'journalism' properly so-called; if anything newspaperly it's editorialization or light-hearted commentary.
Appare
Re:Ugh (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, the guy's good. But there's no way to tell how much better he is than previous 5-day winners, because those previous winners never got the chance to show what they could do.
Re:Ugh (Score:4, Informative)
-
What's astonishing to me is that *nobody* mentions that the only reason he's so far ahead of previous records is that in all previous seasons you were booted after 5 wins.
Actually the article mentions this, did you read it? Another person pointed out that the doubled the value of the questions also this season (when they did away with the 5 day limit). That wasn't mentioned in the article.I for one... (Score:3, Funny)
Pales? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but a 23 day 2235 mile, (3600 KM), race at full speed PALES?
Yesterday was the time trials, and the US Postal team finished first with an average speed of 33 MPH, 53 KPH.
That's amazing... and they'll keep doing it. With other racers such as Ullrich, Hamilton, Julich, etc, this is going to be a great year to watch the race.
Sure this fella on Jepoardy is smart, but we don't know if the show is trumping it up, now do we?
I mean... we can get one smart guy, and keep getting dumb challengers, and hey... look... wow.. he DEFINATELY looks smart, and won't loose.
Can anyone say, "ratings"... I mean, on a bad channel, and a bad time... they need something right?
At least the tour isn't fake, and everyone is at the same level, going for the same goal.
I'll take the Tour over any WB show anyday.
Re:Pales? (Score:3, Insightful)
All those guys (most of them) are cheaters and I don't consider this sport anymore.
Check those 2 links out
http://www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/hoberman/t
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports
Re:Pales? (Score:3, Funny)
Ah slashdot, the home of generalisations.
Re:Lance has a unique "condition". (Score:4, Interesting)
He was amazing - he could ride/run at full speed nearly without limit. So long as he kept refueling - getting oxygen and nutrients, he said mentally he could go nearly forever since he never experienced fatigue pain. The danger was that his body gave him no clues before failure. He could ride until his heart failed or his muscles tore. To him, the computers were necessary because he could make sure his heart rate stayed below critical levels and he could stop himself before he did any real damage.
$828,960 won so far... (Score:4, Funny)
When did Jeopardy get rid of the 5 show max? (Score:5, Informative)
On a related note: I liked Tony Kornheiser on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption talking about auditioning for Jeopardy where he got some pretty high marks but chose a less skilled contestant because Mr Tony wasn't "telegenic enough" (ironic since he cohosts PTI, is a guest on another weekly DC sports show and the Sports Reporters). I guess criteron might be out the window too.
Re:When did Jeopardy get rid of the 5 show max? (Score:3, Interesting)
Only in america (Score:5, Insightful)
Engineers can put probes on Mars and take pictures of Jupiter, but if you want to be celebrated, you must go on TV
Not even close (Score:5, Interesting)
Reminds me of "Quiz Show" (Score:4, Interesting)
Should make everyone wonder whether the network has really found a great candidate or just decided to increase viewer numbers again with a similar plot...
Conspiracy? Perhaps. (Score:5, Interesting)
And who monitors them? Seriously, these days with all sorts of corruption coming to light in business [washingtonpost.com]and government [cnn.com], I wouldn't be surprised to find out that some of these "Standards and Practices guys" have ties to the network execs or show owners.
Perhaps this is a test run, to see what the audience will eat up... a quick search on google turned up nothing on these "standards" guys.
The New Jeopardy (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, here's to Ken!
Re:The New Jeopardy (Score:4, Informative)
Jeopardy Web boards (Score:5, Informative)
Bored of Ken (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually I am getting sort of tired of watching Ken. I used to watch Jeopardy every evening, but have tunned out lately. He has gotten the signaling button down. Most of the lower value questions are general knowledge and its a matter of who ever signals in first. If you can control the board you can choose the categories and can pic the ones you know more about, also you have a greater chance of getting a daily double. This give an adavantage to those who have been on for a few shows and has gotten used to the timing of the signaling button, regardless of knowledge.
I say bring back the five show rule and get some competition back in the game.
Occam's Razor (Score:5, Funny)
He is a cybernetic mutant from the future that was programmed to have all of the answers to a series of game show questions so that he could be sent back in time, win the prize money, and then use said money to fund his killing spree which eventually allows the robots to rise up and take over the earth while only a handful of humans remain plotting to overthrow the robot regime and one day reign supreme again.
And hookers. He is going to blow a ton of that cash on whores.
I know I would.
Tour de Freedom (Score:3, Funny)
That's Tour de Freedom if you please.
Jeopardy addict, am I (Score:5, Funny)
And if that happens during Final Jeopardy, I yell out "Final Jeopardy Triple Stumper!" and I'll break into an extended, elaborate dance, not unlike a wide receiver dancing in the endzone after a touchdown. I get maybe one of those every three months. The evening when I performed that dance while watching Jeopardy! with my girlfriend and her parents is particularly memorable.
Then there was a friend of mine who got a "Ultimate Mega Final Jeopardy Triple Stumper," where he correctly guessed the response before the clue was even given, knowing only the category, and all three contestants got it wrong. As I recall, his head exploded. That was quite a day.
Re:Wheel of Fortune Re:Jeopardy addict, am I (Score:4, Funny)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
(person)
I walked in when this puzzle flashed on the screen and I said, "Senator Barry Goldwater" and it was. No letters at all.
Back in high school I was captain of my school's Scholar's Bowl team. In our championship game, we were really nervous and had too much caffeine before the match. The moderator started the game:
"Toss up number one: Sher..."
My finger slipped and I pressed my button. We had to answer or the other team could hear the entire question. So I said, "Robin Hood" and got it right. We won the match -- I think the other team got a bit demoralized.
Re:Wheel of Fortune Re:Jeopardy addict, am I (Score:4, Funny)
We were at the state Knowledge Bowl tourney and, somewhere in the middle of the 2nd round, we were in a 4-5 question set of "parts of speech" or somesuch. I accidentally hit the buzzer before the reader could completely get out the "what" at the start of the question. My team-mates glared at me, thinking that, for certain, I had blown the point. I said the first thing that came to mind...
"Past Participle"
Tour does not Pale in comparison (Score:5, Informative)
Another time the tires of a cyclist in front of him exploded and that cyclist went skidding across the pavement. I don't remember how fast they were going (maybe 40-50mph), but Armstrong just barely misses running the guy over but had to swerve off track onto the grass before finally getting back on the road and continuing on. And there was one day when due to perhaps his own mistake, he ran out of water. By the time he finished that day he was completely dehydrated and had lost 1/3 of his body mass. Crazy.
And finally the tour had a thriller of an ending. I think the day before the Tour ended Armstrong was still neck and neck with this closest competitor. Racing through a timed trial in the rain, Armstrong finished a bit slow if I remember correctly, but the other guy ended crashing on the wet road, losing too much time and hence guaranteed Armstrong's victory. A toss-up to the very end. Amazing.
And so while Ken Jennings is certainly impressive with his winnings so far, I'd be hard press to say that the Tour pales in comparison.
Re:Tour does not Pale in comparison (Score:5, Interesting)
Lance attacked and was starting to pull away when his handlebar got caught on a spectator's bag and he crashed to the ground most spectacularly. Jan's and Tyler's group went by him and slowed to wait - tradition demands you beat the yellow jersey, not take advantage of misfortune.
Lance climbed back on his bike and immediately the chain slipped and he went groin first into the top-bar - eyewatering stuff. He got his rhythm again, caught up with the group. And kept going - straight through them. Tyler and Jan just could not respond and Lance went on to win the stage by 40 seconds. This gave him enough margin to eliminate any possible challenge in the last time trial.
Tyler Hamilton, incidently, broke his collar-bone on stage one. He still went on to win a stage and finish overall fourth last year. True "Clash of the Titans" stuff. And people think a quiz-show compares?
ken's winning... and SPOILER (Score:4, Interesting)
Ken wins until July 23rd, the last episode of this season. When the next season airs, he wins the first 10 shows, amassing somewhere in the tune of $1.5 million.
This season stopped taping in February and he can't legally comment on anything related to the show until his reign is over.
[/spoiler]
That said, I don't think this guy is all that special. Who knows how many prior 5 day champs could have done what Ken has.
And don't ask me how I know. Let's just say a little birdie told me.
He has a webpage! (for real) (Score:5, Informative)
So how good will the *next* champion be? (Score:5, Interesting)
The guy is so good, you know that he'll never do anything stupid enough to lose. There have likely been many like him on this show, but they never had this chance (the limit on 5 wins cut them off).
It will take another super-duper geek to beat him. Is this the future of Jeopardy? "Unbeatable" champions that just win for months at a time? Personally, that'll get boring quick. Having a heroic run once in a while is thrilling: having it happen all the time is just dull. Michael Schumacher's dominance has similarly turned me off of F1 racing.
Methinks another rule change may be in the making for next season: a cap on earnings. Maybe $1,000,000 is the right amount.
BTW, I'm REALLY looking forward to a "Tournament of Champions" where he can square off against some of the others that got cut off at 5 wins. I think he'd do well (likely very well), but he'd certainly not be a lock to beat some of the others we've seen on this show in the past.
Quote from Newsweek magazine (Score:5, Interesting)
- Newsweek 7/12/04 issue
Re:Culture (Score:5, Insightful)
This is high esteem for a man who does well on a game show by showing of his gargantuan brain. This is high esteem for a man who has probably forgotten more trivia than most of us currently know. This is high esteem for a geek pressing his advantage in an arena suited to his forte.
Re:Culture (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, we need to get back to the traditional values of throwing a ball and running fast.
Re:Culture (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh, wait. We already do that with reality tv people. Whoops, my bad.
There is a significant amount of difference between being a font of general (if often/somewhat useless) knowledge, and being willing to eat bugs on camera.
In the one case you have demonstrated a voracious appetite for learning and retention of this learning, and made a few bucks along the way.
In the o
Re:Culture (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't an outback-jack-who-wants-to-marry-a-midget-bachelor type of televised retardation that the reality shows are. You can't fake Jeopardy; either you know it and you're fast enough on the buzzer or you're dead in the water.
Finally someone revered on a gameshow for their mind, not their boobs or conniving.
Re:Curious about timing (Score:3, Informative)
When I passed the test and was placed in the contestant pool for last season, they told me that they film from August through March, 5 episodes a day each on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Since we're almost up to the new filming season, I'd guess that these episodes were filmed last March.
(BTW, the bastards never called me so I wasn't ever actually on the show
Re:Curious about timing (Score:5, Informative)
According to this story [boston.com] and countless others, the tapings occurred in February. The next tapings are scheduled for August.
If Ken didn't lose by the end of his season, then he could be back for those tapings. I assume the current season will continue airing even during these tapings, and while Jeopardy has been extremely good at keeping the length of the streak under wraps, I imagine if KJ shows up in August, we're going to hear about it from somebody.
Re:Jeopardy hub-bub (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Job Interview? (Score:3, Insightful)
The median difficulty question can't be too hard. Part of the fun of a game show is sitting at home knowing the answer and watching the contestant choke.
It wouldn't be any fun if the contenstants were asked to know things that only a tiny minority of people are likely to know, like the name of the actor who played "Bobba Fett" in the Star Wars movies.
Re:Job Interview? (Score:3, Interesting)
Impossibly hard trivia -
STAR WARS
"This person played Boba Fett in the original SW films."
"Who is Jeremy Bulloch?"
Typical Jeopardy question -
STAR WARS
"Jeremy Bulloch played the role of this deadly intergalactic bounty hunter."
"Who is Boba Fett?"
Re:Coaching? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Coaching? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What is Jeopardy!? (Score:5, Informative)
For the non-US readership: three contestants with a ring-in button. 'Hook' for the show is that you get an 'answer' and have to respond in the form of a question ("The US President who wrote the Declaration of Independence"; "Who is Thomas Jefferson?")
Three rounds: first two consist of six categories of five questions each (game 'board' is six columns of five monitors each). Cash value of questions in first round runs $200-1000. in $200 increments, second round ('Double Jeopardy') runs $400-2000 in $400 jumps. You lose the value of the question on wrong answers, so you can potentially run negative. There are random 'Daily Double' squares (one in first round, two in second), where you can wager some/all of your winnings on getting that item correct, allowing for big shifts in position during the game. Third round ('Final Jeopardy') the players wager some/all of their winnings on a single question/answer; high total wins for the day.
Former rule was five days and you're out (but eligible for the year-end 'Tournament of Champions'); this has been dropped this year allowing for the current streak of said Ken J.
Re:How do they keep the audience quiet? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Chuck would beat KenJen hands down! (Score:4, Interesting)