Jennings Snaps Weikle, Vered Single-Day Records; Smashes Spangenberg 5-Day Mark
tvgameshows.net
For the three years since Jeopardy! doubled its dollar values, veteran fans, former players and ex-champions have widely contended new recordholders should have asterisks by their names.
Remove all doubts. Even with inflationary totals, series sensation Ken Jennings wiped out the records of Brian Weikle, Jerome Vered and Frank Spangenberg with an unprecedented $75,000 payoff Friday.
With a $23,600 wager on Final Jeopardy! (category: Shakespeare), Jennings knocked off Weikle's post-2001 single-day record of $52,000, which the Murray, Ut., software engineer had previously tied three times.
Final answer: two of the four Shakespeare plays in which ghosts appear on stage. Jennings' question: what are "Hamlet" and "Richard III?" Host Alex Trebek, milking the drama, said: "'Hamlet' is one, 'Julius Caesar' is one, 'Macbeth' is one.....and the fourth is 'Richard III.'" "You're killing me, Alex," was Jennings' response of relief.
The win padded Jennings' continuing record to 38 consecutive victories as the 2003-04 season ended. After six weeks of tournament repeats, Jennings returns to the buzzer Labor Day to launch the show's 21st syndicated season.
His 38-day total is now $1,321,660, moving him within less than $100,000 of surpassing Curtis Warren of Greed for fourth place on television's all-time money list.
Ironically, Jay Leno almost let the cat out of the bag on Thursday's edition of The Tonight Show when he asked Jennings, "Isn't there some other record you're going to top tomorrow?" Jennings refused to acknowledge.
Jerome Vered held the single-day record of $34,000 in the show's 1984-2001 dollar values ($68,000 in the current structure).
Jennings also topped the adjusted five-day figure for Jeopardy! legend and New York Police Lt. Frank Spangenberg from the show's first syndicated season. Spangenberg won $102,597 as an undefeated champion ($205,194 adjusted in the current values). For the season's final five-day week, Jennings carted home a record-smashing $221,200.
Continuing his amazing domination of the game, Jennings rendered Final Jeopardy! an afterthought, other than his own finish, for the 18th consecutive day and 33rd time overall.
He was a perfect 23 for 23 in Jeopardy! and 21 of 23 in Double Jeopardy! (44 of 46 overall). Until a $1,600 miss on the next-to-last answer of Double Jeopardy!, Jennings briefly surpassed Weikle's one-day mark before the finale, reaching $53,000.
The big catalyst was a $10,000 Daily Double early in Double Jeopardy!: for her portrayal of Greta Ohlsson in a 1974 mystery, this legendary actress scored her third Oscar. Film buff Jennings instantly knew: who is Ingrid Bergman? That sent him to $26,400, a mindboggling 11-to-1 margin over nearest challenger Sarah Mulloy with more than four full categories remaining.
His two Daily Doubles gave Jennings an additional $16,200. He connected on his first 32 attempts in the game before a miss in Double Jeopardy!
Former probation officer Kristine O'Connell-McCoy finished with $1,800. Mulloy, of Ferndale, Mi., fell back to $1,200 with her Final Jeopardy! miss.
Jennings, arguably the most media-followed contestant since Charles Van Doren in 1957, swept two categories and had four of the five correct questions in five others.
Monday, the two-week College Championship from Yale will begin repeats. During the encore, a 10-second insert will alert viewers Jennings will return to the show Sept. 6. |
