On November 30, 2004, after winning 74 straight games and more than $2.5 million—a record for U.S. game shows—Jeopardy! contestant Ken Jennings loses. Jennings’ extended winning streak gave the game show a huge ratings boost and turned the software engineer from Salt Lake City, Utah into a TV hero and household name. Barbara Walters named him one of the 10 most fascinating people of the year and Jennings appeared on such shows as Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and even Sesame Street.
Jennings’ final game came down to the Final Jeopardy round, where contestants were presented with the clue: “Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.” Jennings’ challenger Nancy Zerg correctly asked, “What is H&R Block?”, putting her winning total $1 more than his. All eyes were then on Jennings, who revealed his incorrect question: “What is FedEx?”
During his run, Jennings provided the correct question to 2,693 clues and missed only 263. One of his winning strategies was his quickness on the buzzer; he beat his competitors to the question more than 60 percent of the time.
