Throwback Thursday: Ken Jennings Surpasses $1 Million in Regular Gameplay (2004)
Going over Ken's historic 30th game. Also occurring on this day is Jerry Frankel, the first ever Tournament of Champions winner of the Trebek era, passing away 36 years ago.
The Second Jeopardy! Millionaire
Who wants to be a millionaire? Two years after Brad Rutter won the 2002 Million Dollar Masters, Ken Jennings went on a tear in arguably the most memorable run in Jeopardy! history. In the 20th season, Jeopardy! began the year by eliminating the 5-day limit that had once put a cap on repeat champions continuing their run. John Beck was the last person to retire as a 5-day champion as a result of this development.
Before Ken Jennings, Sean Ryan was the first champion to win his 6th game on October 15th, 2003. Three months later on January 13th, 2004, Tom Walsh became the first champion to win his 7th game, holding this record until Ken Jennings broke it on June 11th, 2004 when he won his 8th game. Despite these amazing achievements, what Ken did next was truly unprecedented and has only been repeated in regular gameplay three more times by James Holzhauer, Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider: surpassing $1,000,000.
Ken Jennings went into his 30th game with $972,960 accumulated to date. To surpass $1,000,000, he needed at least $27,040. He was faced against Irene Lawrence and Max Corrick, who had no idea what they were in for. Back in 2004, people weren’t really hunting for Daily Doubles like they are now. Ken played the established way by starting at the top of the board and going down the category.
After acquiring $8,600 in his bank in the Jeopardy! round, he eventually found the first Daily Double of the game, betting $1,400 in aims of getting $10,000. Ken would often wager for every $5,000 milestone in hopes of reaching it. In fact, as he was making his wager, Alex said to him, “And I have a feeling I know how much you're going to risk. But go ahead, you tell me and the audience.”
Ken finished the round with an insurmountable lead at $12,600, with Irene picking up $3,200 and Max with $1,000. In the Double Jeopardy! round, Ken’s dominance continued as he found both Daily Doubles, wagering for the same kinds of milestones. He bet $5,200 on the first one for $25,000 and $5,800 on the second one for $40,000. He was right both times. It was one of his best games to date, even without Final Jeopardy! factored in.
With $46,000 already in Ken’s bank, he was already above the million dollar mark. Something that’s really worth noting here is that by this point in the show’s history, Brian Weikle had the top one-day record in the post-doubled dollar amount era with $52,000. In Ken’s 28th and 29th games right before this one, Ken had tied Brian’s record twice in a row, earning $52,000 on both days. Ken was well within range to not only surpass $1,000,000 but to beat Brian’s record.
The Final Jeopardy! category was Headlines of the Past 40 Years, which seems appropriate given that Ken had played a headline-worthy game here. The clue stated: “The first 2 New York Times headlines set in 96-point type were in these 2 years, 5 years apart.” The correct response was 1969 & 1974, symbolizing Neil Armstrong walking on the moon and Richard Nixon resigning as president. All three players were incorrect.
It didn’t really matter what Ken wagered since he effectively already won the game. However, he broke from his usual routine in the previous two games; he actually tried to break Brian’s record in this episode, wagering $14,000 rather than just $6,000. A correct answer would have earned him $60,000 for this game and a new one-day record. However, he instead dropped to $32,000, giving him a 30-day total of $1,004,960! This made Ken Jennings the first ever player to win at least $1,000,000 in regular gameplay.
Jerry Frankel Passes Away (1987)
We’re going to rewind back to the beginning of the Trebek era for this next segment. From November 11th to November 22nd, 1985, the first ever Tournament of Champions aired on TV for the first time. In this tournament, there were 15 players who won at least 5 games. The structure of 15 players became the gold standard for how TOCs were held, up until 2022 when TPTB brought back 21 of the best players of the qualifying season.
Although Jerry Frankel was one of 15 qualifiers, he was far from the favorite to win. At 5 wins and $32,650, he was ranked at the bottom of the list, 14th place only ahead of Steve Rogitz, who also made it into the finals. Even in the quarterfinals, Jerry didn’t win his match and he had the lowest wildcard score, squeaking by with $3,300 compared to Paula Tupper’s $2,100. His semifinal runaway game against Ron Black and Paul Boymel came across as a surprise to many, as he advanced into the finals against Bruce Fauman and Steve Rogitz.
The first day of the finals was a very tight contest, with Jerry earning $6,100, Steve in second with $4,500, and Bruce in third with $4,300. The next game was a tight match as well, as Steve collected $5,200 before Final Jeopardy! compared to $7,000 for Jerry and $7,100 for Bruce. Despite Bruce having a slight lead in the second game over Jerry, Jerry still had the advantage due to entering the second game with a $1,600 lead over Steve and $1,800 lead over Bruce.
In Final Jeopardy!, the category was about The Americas. The answer was very simply worded, merely wanting the westernmost national capital located in the Americas. The correct answer was Mexico City, but only Jerry was correct. Steve guessed Managua, Nicaragua and Bruce guessed Quito, Ecuador. Jerry added $5,401 to earn $12,401 on his second day for a two-day total of $18,501, which would have made him the winner regardless of what Bruce did.
With this result, Jerry Frankel was declared the winner of the first Tournament of Champions in the syndicated show’s history, earning $100,000 for a career total of $132,650. As of today, he ranks 119th of all-time, despite not competing on the show since his win here in 1985. The actual reason for that is much grimmer though.
In the 1980s, the crisis around HIV/AIDS hit its peak and victimized millions of people. One of those victims was Jerry himself, and on July 13th, 1987, he passed away from AIDS complications. Despite him not being here with us for 36 years, his achievements on Jeopardy! have cemented his legacy on the show eternally and he will always be remembered for what he did here. Steve Rogitz is the only finalist in this tournament who’s still alive, as far as we know.
Other Events On This Day
2022 - Emily Fiasco, #1 2022 Tournament of Champions alternate, wins her first game with $28,000.
2021 - Tim Moon wins his second game with a large total of $44,401 for a two-day total of $72,601.
2005 - David Madden wins his seventh game with $18,000 for a seven-day total of $173,500.
2001 - Alan Bailey wins his second game for a two-day total of $21,601.
1988 - Pete Tremblay wins his fourth game for a four-day total of $44,702.
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I'd forgotten that Ken got Final wrong and just barely passed a million in that game; interesting coincidence considering that in the game where Amy broke a million, her FJ wager was exactly enough that if she'd been wrong, she would've had exactly 1,000,000 (but then she got it right).