Well then! Ken Jennings has a confession to make about his legendary Jeopardy! run — and it involves a little creative storytelling!
The longtime quiz-show champ, who famously won 74 consecutive games in 2004 before becoming the show’s host, recently admitted to People that some of the personal anecdotes he shared onstage during the show back then weren’t exactly, shall we say, factual.
Related: Alex Trebek Actually Said Who He Wanted To Replace Him — But They Weren’t Given A Shot!
Jennings, now 52, explained that coming up with a fresh little story to tell then-host Alex Trebek and the audience for every episode got harder and harder as his historic winning streak continued:
“I didn’t feel like I had a great story in game number three, much less game number 73. So a lot of my stories are — and I’ve confessed this before — not 100% true. It’s just, you know, something that you and [former Jeopardy! host] Alex Trebek can chat about for 25 seconds. Like, mission accomplished.”
Ha! Talk about knowing your audience!
And Jennings got even more candid about his approach, revealing that he once claimed to enjoy something he apparently did not — and even invented a jaw-dropping “dark secret” on the spot:
“So I told them that I liked airline food. That’s not really true. He asked me if I had any dark secrets, and I told him, ‘I killed a man down south once.’ Also, not true … We don’t fact-check. We’re not The New Yorker on Jeopardy!”
Thankfully, no actual crime spree was hiding behind that podium!
Related: Ken Jennings Breaks Silence On Mayim Bialik’s Firing Controversy!
So what makes the perfect Jeopardy! anecdote? According to Jennings, it’s all about taking an ordinary detail and making it unexpectedly memorable:
“A good Jeopardy anecdote is a little bit like a Mad Lib. Something like, you know … Even though you’re in your 30s, you own two tricycles, and they’re both orange. On paper, that’s kind of a boring story. Somebody has two orange tricycles. But when you think about it on Jeopardy!, that’s kind of the perfect thing.”
Okay then! Apparently, the key to a great Jeopardy! story is less “truth” and more “keep Alex talking for 25 seconds.” The more you know!
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[Image via Jeopardy!/YouTube]
