# Where's Ken? Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions? WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 21, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235 "2004-09-21T02:07:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/1 "2004-09-21T02:07:02Z")
I just came back from the movies to watch Ken win another one, and on playing back the tape I see that my local affiliate (WJLA in Washington DC) ran a Tournament of Champions show tonight. What’s going on? Is this just a glitch at channel 7, or did no one see a new episode tonight? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/2 "2004-09-21T02:08:57Z")
It’s! The Tournament of Champions for the next two weeks. Ken will return to his merciless slaughter on October 4th. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/3 "2004-09-21T02:43:08Z")
And it is a new episode - it’s this year’s Tourney. Alex announced this at the beginning of Friday’s episode. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/4 "2004-09-21T02:44:35Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > And it is a new episode - it’s this year’s Tourney. Alex announced this at the beginning of Friday’s episode. I’m eagerly awaiting next season’s tourney. Ken will destroy all! ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/5 "2004-09-21T02:47:18Z")
That’s it? I guess I didn’t get the memo. Thanks. Alex didn’t mention anything about Ken, so I assumed it was a re-run. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/6 "2004-09-21T02:54:04Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > That’s it? I guess I didn’t get the memo. Thanks. > > Alex didn’t mention anything about Ken, so I assumed it was a re-run. He’s using Ken as a weapon. “Either you slugs start giving better responses or I’ll sic Ken on you!” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/7 "2004-09-21T03:05:38Z")
And, by the way, Ken isn’t eligible to play in this year’s Tournament. I’m sure the other champions are doing cartwheels. If Ken continues to win throughout the next season, next year’s ToC would be entirely composed of wild cards. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/8 "2004-09-21T03:14:36Z")
Man wouldn’t you love to be the Giant Killer. They had try outs in San Fran and I signed up, did even get a call. Nice fantasy though. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/9 "2004-09-21T03:26:44Z")
I missed an episode (first of the season? $10K, for a total of $1.33M, anyway) and the local station reran it tonight. So far, so good, but the phone rang going into Final Jeopardy and I missed the answer! Can anybody here help me out? The question was about the Library of Congress having a comic that ran from 1941 to 1971. What was it? Remeber to phrase your reply in the form of a question. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/10 "2004-09-21T03:32:10Z")
> [@rjk](#): > > The question was about the Library of Congress having a comic that ran from 1941 to 1971. What was it? > > Remeber to phrase your reply in the form of a question. 😉 What is _Classic Comics_? ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/11 "2004-09-21T05:24:14Z")
Thanks, **Mr. Blue Sky**! So Classic Comics morphed into Classics Illustrated? [This site](http://www.classicscentral.com/) seems to suggest that. All I remember are the CI series, which were my favourites. (Just to keep this thread more or less on track, all three contestants missed it. I wonder if the judges would have accepted “Classics Illustrated” as an answer.) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/12 "2004-09-22T17:17:17Z")
Anybody see the 9/21 show? Ken-less, of course. They could have used his computer knowledge. One clue was: > [@](#): > > 42.53.508.454 is an example of one of the numbers known by these two initials, which are basically web addresses. The question, asked and accepted, was “What is an IP?”. However, any geek or 7 year-old knows that 508 and 454 are not valid IP numbers, whose max is 255 (hex FF). Obviously Jeopardy, as much as I admire their staff, really fell down on this one. And a friend of mine took exception to the “web address” part of the clue as well, since an IP is really a domain (base) address. A web address is usually a lot more than just the IP. However, I’ll give them this one, as they said “basically.” ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/13 "2004-09-22T19:45:34Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And, by the way, Ken isn’t eligible to play in this year’s Tournament. I’m sure the other champions are doing cartwheels. > > If Ken continues to win throughout the next season, next year’s ToC would be entirely composed of wild cards. But if Ken wins all season, then no one else would have any money to be a wildcard. Maybe Ken should only get to play Double Jeopardy. Make it more fair. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/14 "2004-09-22T20:13:33Z")
Well, to be honest we don’t know how well some of these past champions would have done had they not been stopped at five games. Frank Spangenberg and Chuck Forrest, for example, probably could have gone to 20+ games easily enough. I suspect some of them look at Ken not with fear, but with envy (“You lucky bastard, that could’ve been _my_ million!”) It wouldn’t surprise me if Ken gets creamed at a eventual tournament of champions, or least beaten. I can just picture the intro: “Sam Coolidge, with a five-day total of $63,201. Jenna farkinson, with a five-day total of $71,305. And Ken Jennings, with a hundred-day total of one jillion dollars.” ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2004, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/15 "2004-09-22T23:12:28Z")
Perhaps Jeopardy will have a tournament of “Super Champions”. Might be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/16 "2004-09-23T00:30:12Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And, by the way, Ken isn’t eligible to play in this year’s Tournament. I’m sure the other champions are doing cartwheels. > > If Ken continues to win throughout the next season, next year’s ToC would be entirely composed of wild cards. Bad news Our local TV news announced last week that Ken had been beaten. That show won’t air for a month or so. I wasn’t happy that they just blurted it out. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/17 "2004-09-25T03:54:21Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#): > > But if Ken wins all season, then no one else would have any money to be a wildcard. “Now let’s meet the contestants. Ken Jennings, with a 75-game total of $2.5 million. Suzy Wilson, whose second-place prize of a new washer and dryer was worth about eight hundred bucks or so…” ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-ken-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-wtf/265235/18 "2004-09-25T04:39:02Z")
> [@](#): > > _musicat:_ However, any geek or 7 year-old knows that 508 and 454 are not valid IP numbers, whose max is 255 (hex FF). Obviously Jeopardy, as much as I admire their staff, really fell down on this one. Maybe it’s like the 555 in fake phone numbers. OK…reaching.