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Wednesday, 14 September, 2005 11:02 PM
Jeopardy!
Winner Ken Jennings Visits the U of M
PHOTO
BY GLORIA RZUCIDLO / AMERICAJR.com
Ken
Jennings describes his experience on Jeopardy!
DEARBORN, MI
-- Ken
Jennings, the all-time biggest winner on the Jeopardy! TV game show
visited the U of M Dearborn campus. He was on hand for a lecture,
Q&A session and he played "Quiz the Whiz" with a student
and professor from the university.
A very curious person,
if he is interested in a topic, he reads about it. He didn't memorize
anything for the show. If he's interested in something, "you
remember it."
From the time he signed
up and took the pre-show test, it took 10 months to actually get
called to tape the show. He was on the show from June 2, 2004 to
November 30, 2004. They taped five shows in one afternoon. Each
show was on TV one day which equaled one week.
Each contestant had to
stand on a black rectangle square. This black square raised and
lowered for each person. Everyone had to appear the same height.
So a taller person would be standing in a hole. A shorter person
would be standing on a box.
Alex Trebek was never
to associate with the contestants. He met the contestants as we
would see on the show. He never played favoritism to any person.
He reminded them to answer the questions in the form of a question.
Each time Jennings was
on the show, he wrote his name differently. The reason for this
was, everyone including his family and friends told him to write
it this way or that way. However, he said there are only three letters
in his name.
What did he do with his
$2.5 million dollars? He said nothing much changed. He still drives
his old Toyota Corolla but bought his wife a station wagon, send
a lot of money to charity and just got back two days ago from a
European vacation.
"Money doesn't mean
much to me," he says. Jennings played the game for fun.
Jennings was on the game
show for 74 episodes until he was defeated on his 75th appearance
by Nancy Zerg. His winnings totally $2,520,700 during his first
run on the show. While playing in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions,
he picked up an additional $500,000.
He was born in Seattle
but grew up in South Korea. Currently, Jennings lives in Salt Lake
City. He graduated with a degree in computer science and English
from Brigham Young University. He was a member of the Quiz bowl
Team at the college.
PHOTO
BY GLORIA RZUCIDLO / AMERICAJR.com
Jennings
visits the U of M Dearborn after spending time on vacation in Europe.
PHOTO
BY GLORIA RZUCIDLO / AMERICAJR.com
He
is just a normal guy and said, "Money doesn't mean much to
me."
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Story: Jeopardy!
Winner Ken Jennings Outseated
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