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09/15/04

Ken Jennings' fate (If you don't want to know, don't read it)

Filed under: Movies and TV, NewsKyle Email @ 08:25:59 am
kyle_jennings.jpg

This is a few days old, but I just found out Ken Jennings may have lost on Jeopardy. The shows are taped beforehand, and the people in charge at Jeopardy deny this, but some unidentified sources have claimed that he lost in his 75th appearance. As of last week, the aired episodes only had him up to his 41st show, so it will be a while before the reported losing episode airs.

The question is: if someone was able to beat him, is it likely that they will enjoy an equally long streak before someone else can win?

3 comments

Comment from: danny [Visitor] · http://danny.brendoman.com
I heard the rumor was false. Someone told me that he missed the final Jeopardy question in that show, but had enough cash that he still won. I think it's wild that they stay 30 episodes ahead.
09/15/04 @ 14:52
Comment from: Zac N. [Visitor]
This will cement my status as a dork to my wife and family:) I've actually been thinking about this over the past couple of weeks since I began Tivo-ing Jeopardy. I'm not sure people truly appreciate how absolutely amazing this guy is. Here's an oversimplified way of looking at it. Let's assume that there's a 99% probability that Ken will win an individual episode. If that is the case, the probability of him winning n consecutive episodes is .99^N. If that is true, the probability of him winning 75 straight episodes is 47%. If he has only a 98% chance of winning an individual episode, the probability of winning 75 straight is only 22%. It's possible, then that the guy who beat him only had a 1% chance of doing so. Since Ken is superhuman, though, let's assume the new guy has a 95% probability of winning an individual episode. If that's the case, his odds of winning 75 straight is only 2%. Bottom line-I don't expect Ken's streak to be touched any time soon. Here's to hoping it isn't. Zac
09/18/04 @ 16:07
Comment from: matt [Visitor]
I was on wilkipedia and they were saying that a non-syndicated gameshow a long time ago had a guy on for 75 episodes who stepped down undefeated. The guys name was Ian Lygo, anyway I am just guessing but Ken might step down on the 75th episode undefeated as well. Ken seems pretty interested in all of the gameshow records, so it is definitely not out of the question...
11/03/04 @ 19:25

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