Something tells me he won’t have a problem affording it himself. 
News flash: June 16, 2006. Culver City, CA. Alex Trebek retired today from The Ken Jennings Show, after hosting it (and its predecessor, Jeopardy!, for twenty years. He wished Jennings, the 500-time winner whose cash winnings now exceed $15 million, good luck. Taking over as host next week will be Paris Hilton.
Nah, it was a bet he had going with his college roommate.
USCDiver, for your second option, they could bring in a super-human challenger played by Dolph Lundgren.
If he continues for much longer, they could start bringing in former long-time jeapordy winners to try and topple him. That would be a good ratings hit.
Not really a spoiler: The charade category today was the hardest one I’ve ever seen. I was just staring at the screen in incomprehension while they answered.
I demand x-rays. This guy has at least two extra brains hidden somewhere.
BTW, if you want a behind the scenes look, Ken’s been posting on the Jeopardy topic over at TWoP. They also have a show staffer posting, which is neat.
I would hereby like to point out that I have a Jennings number of 2. I do college quiz bowl and I have played against a team with a guy (much older than I) who was good friends with and competed against Ken Jennings.
I lost.
Wow, Smack, that’s cool. Thanks!
Final Jeopardy was hillarious. The clue was, “First designed as a surgical disinfectant, in 1895 it was available to dentists and by 1914 was sold over the counter.” Patricia, the first respondent wrote, “What is same as Ken’s answer?”
The audience howled, and so did I!
So did I. That was just brilliant.
Ken held to tradition, too. I’m waiting for Alex to flip on him one of these days. ‘TAKE A CHANCE, MAN! WE COULD HAVE SET A DOZEN RECORDS BY NOW!!!’
I noticed over on the board where Ken is posting that he said they don’t know their scores during the course of play. It surprised me to learn that. If someone is registered over there, could you please invite him here?
They don’t know their scores during play? That’s odd; when I was a contestant in 1996, we each had a score display on the wall opposite us, to the left of the game board, that kept a running total identical to what was displayed on the front of our lecterns.
I just checked the official Jeopardy! website, and although they don’t currently have the 360-degree photo of the studio set that they used to have, they do have a 360-degree photo of the college Jeopardy! set at Ohio State. If you’ll pan to the left in that photo, you can see a rack holding up three score displays (above and behind a monitor), each which has “0” dollars on it.
Not knowing your score would also really screw up the wagering portions of the show - the DD’s and FJ. You’d think there’d be a lot more over-wagering as well as underwagering like Ken’s been doing - which would be OK in a DD, but wagering more than you’ve earned would seriously mess up a FJ. I think either Ken misspoke, or someone misinterpretted his comment.
Reading the thread, I think I’ve found the post from Ken Lib’s talking about. (This one.)
Ken seems to be saying when the game is going full tilt - when you need to ring in - it’s hard - if not impossible - to keep the score in your head. But when it comes to a DD or FJ, the game stops, so you have a chance to read the scores.
Ken’s just betting conservatively, and hoping his math holds out so he can hit a round number with his total (he mentions this part a few pages later.).
Why hasn’t one of the hundred or so audience members who witnessed Ken’s final game come forward with the news? Sure, Ken’s contestant contract forbids him to reveal that info, but nothing is keeping an audience member from giving us the straight dope.
Not everybody loves spoilers like we do. 
Then again, if we find a new Doper with the handle I Beat Ken, maybe we’ll learn the details.
Do we know that he’s already had a final game?
An article on Ken Jennings in Salt Lake’s Deseret News doesn’t let the cat out of the bag.
Someone on the rec.arts.tv newsgroup claims that “when and if Jennings ever
goes down the five-win rule will be reinstated.”
I can see that happening – they don’t want to bust the budget for the show, after all.