Request for status update!
I’ve been away from the tube all week, thanks to this annoying thing I call my life…
So, whats the scoop on Ken, now?
How many wins?
How much cash?
And what happened in last nights (Thursday’s) final Jeopardy? I hear he drew a Superman symbol on his screen? Did that have somehting to do with the question, or was he just boasting? 
Thanks!
thwartme
27 wins, $868k in winnings
Yesterdays question was something to the effect of “Who, after 68 years of being together, decided to take a break in issue XXX”. Answer Lois Lane.
Thanks MissTake!
thwartme
Ken may be raking in the dough (he’s clearly a gentleman, but a little milquetoast for my taste) but Frank Spangenberg could kick his butt.
So why does this guy know so much about so many different topics- more than just about anyone else on the planet? There must be some mental disorder at work here.
Is he an idiot-savant, an obsessive-compulsive, or is he a mnemonist who spends his free time memorizing encyclopedias?
Maybe he is offering the other contestants a guaranteed cut of his winnings if they “lose.”
I still say it’s more likely that the Men in Black are looking for him so they can send him home.
He’s VERY fast on the button, and has a good broad knowledge base. Being fast means he’s the one who gets the lower end questions right, which sets him up for Daily Doubles, which put him out of reach if he gets them right. You can tell that the other contestants know the answers a lot, but they can’t buzz-in in time. I’m not discounting that Ken knows a lot, but so do a lot of other players. They didn’t get on Jeopardy by being stupid.
Today (7/9):
He wins again. Going into FJ he had $37,000. His opponents weren’t even close (especially Kate, the “I don’t need to buzz in to answer” dolt in the middle). Ol’ Ken bet $15K on his answer to “This G8 member with the smallest population (Canada)”. He ties the one-day record with $52K. Alex said, “You coulda bet one more dollar!”
I don’t watch a lot of Jeopardy, but the lady on tonight’s show…how on earth did she ever get selected to play? Was she pulled from the audience?
The more I think about it, the more I think reinstituting a limit on the number of days a contestant can compete is a good idea.
Think about it…who’s going to beat Ken? Someone either very lucky or very good. And if that person is very good, they might have a Ken-like run. Who’ll beat that person? Someone either very lucky or very good. Ad nauseam.
That’s not to take away from Ken - I find his streak very entertaining and impressive - but I don’t want Jeopardy! to turn into something like this.
They’re running out of real Jeopardy! contestants and have started borrowing ones from Wheel of Fortune.
But, I kid the Wheel.
Some people freeze in a situation such as being on Jeopardy. She could have beat Ken to a pulp had they not been on Jeopardy. Then again, maybe she is dumb, but my point is, we don’t know why she failed, but it isn’t because she is stupid. After all, she made it to the show.
I agree. When something like this happens, it won’t be about how much the viewer knows, but how far a person can go on the show. It’s probably been good for ratings, so now endless play is likely permanent.
True story: I was at a Jeopardy! contestant search in Atlantic City in late 1990, and about 100 of us were taking the written part of the test. They played a video tape of 50 questions, and we had 15 or 20 seconds to write down an answer for each. (It didn’t have to be in the form of a question.) But these were not standard Jeopardy! questions. Standard Jeopardy! questions (well, answers, but you know what I mean) always have two clues: e.g., “The U.S. Naval Academy is located in this Maryland capital.” You might know that Annapolis is the capital, or that that’s where the Naval Academy is.
The test questions were not like that. “This is the capital of Nova Scotia.” You knew it or you didn’t. They were all like this, and they were hard. The first ten questions were so hard, I thought I was certain to wash out. Then they said., “This is the planet closest to the sun,” and I thought, “Finally! One I know.”
Anyway, after the tape was done, we were all sitting around waiting for them to score the tests, asking each other what the answer to this one or that one was. Someone said, "If this is the test for Jeopardy!, what do you think the “Wheel of Fortune test is like?” To which someone else replied (and I wish I could take credit for this):
“It’s the same test. If you fail, you get to be on Wheel!”
(Yes, I made it. Didn’t you read post #91?)
I forgot to mention: Did anyone notice the wrong answer they let him get away with the other night? The answer to one question was Dr. Scholl (of the footwear), but Ken answered “Scholls.” The products get the possessive, “Scholl’s,” but the guy’s name (which was the correct answer) is Scholl.
I don’t think they normally let people get away with a mistake like this. Just tonight they didn’t allow “Zarasthustra” for “Zarathustra.”
True, I’ve noticed they let some things go. Most of the time it’s been minor mispronunciation, though. I thought they would have let “Zarasthustra” slide, especially when they let the other guy correct himself: “George the third - second.” Usually they’ll only take the first thing you say.
Also on Ken’s 13th appearance or so, he failed to respond in the form of a question and it slipped by the judges. Maybe there’s a vast conspiracy. Maybe they’re paying them off, or maybe they just have a lot of interns on board.
We’ve covered that, actually. Replay shows that he did indeed form a question, but Alex talked over Ken’s quiet “What is…”. And another poster pointed out that question forming typically is not strictly enforced except in Double Jeopardy anyway.
I could have sworn he didn’t put the final “s” on “Ride of the Valkyries,” but I might have mis-heard. It does seem like they’re giving him the benefit of the doubt though.
And didn’t he hint last week that he wanted to become a writer for Jeopardy! (though he may have said it in jest)? He mentioned that he “had to do this first.”
They allow a quick change as long as two conditions are present:[ol][]Alex hasn’t responded, and []the allowed response time, as shown on the lights on each podium, hasn’t expired.[/ol]At least that’s what I’ve observed, and the “third…second” response as I remember it seems to have satisfied those conditions.