Jennings went home with $2.5 million across a run of episodes that lasted five months and now hosts the popular game show.

Ken Jennings finally addresses the conspiracy theory that he lost *Jeopardy *on purpose after 74-game streak

Jennings went home with $2.5 million across a run of episodes that lasted five months and now hosts the popular game show.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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April 15, 2026 11:28 p.m. ET

Ken Jennings competes on 'Jeopardy' in 2004. Credit:

Sony/Shutterstock

- Ken Jennings is opening up about his historic *Jeopardy *winning streak, and the "Final Jeopardy" question that finally stumped him.

- The current *Jeopardy* host explained on a clip from the *Inside Jeopardy *podcast that he did not, as some fans believe, throw his final game on purpose.

- "Have you ever willingly quit a job where you were making $70,000 an hour?" he quipped.

Ken Jennings is finally pulling the curtain back on his famed final game of *Jeopardy*.

Now the host of the beloved and long-running game show, Jennings first shot to fame in 2004 when a 74-game winning streak earned him $2.5 million. But all it takes to lose *Jeopardy* is one wrong guess, and on Nov. 30, 2004, Jennings' answer to a "Business & Industry" question during the "Final Jeopardy" segment finally sank his ship.

Rumors have swirled since then — what threw off Jennings off his game? Did he really not know which firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees only work four months out of the year? Did he just get bored? Most scandalous of all, did he lose on purpose?

Over two decades later, Jennings is setting the record straight.

Ken Jennings hosts 'Celebrity Jeopardy' in 2025.

Christopher Willard/Disney

Tuesday's episode of the *Inside Jeopardy *podcast featured a segment in which Jennings, fresh from hosting a game, fielded audience questions. One man in the audience came out with something that had been "haunting me for 20 years. Did you really not know the answers to the last 'Final Jeopardy' question?"

Jennings joked with the audience, "For 20 years, this gentleman has been thinking I took a dive." He then answered the question this way: "Have you ever willingly quit a job where you were making $70,000 an hour?"

Unsurprisingly, given it's Jennings, it's true: the super champ's total earnings of $2.5 million make for a per-game average of $33,784. With *Jeopardy *long airing in a half-hour slot, that puts Jennings' hourly average on the show at $67,568.

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"Maybe I thought you were getting bored," someone shouted from the audience. Jennings was incredulous. "Getting bored? Getting bored, no."

Jennings explained, "As it turned out, it was a clue about H&R Block, the tax prep company... I think I could have thought about that one all day, and I would not have figured out that was H&R Block. That's kind of how these long runs go — they always seem inevitable until a few things happen, and then suddenly, they're not so inevitable anymore."

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Though he remains the contestant who has won the most consecutive games and amassed the highest earnings, one of Jennings' records just got tied. On April 9, Jamie Ding matched Jennings' streak of successfully answering 45 clues in a row during one episode. Ding won his 24th game on Wednesday, with his winnings totaling $644,000.

You can watch Tuesday's full episode of *Inside Jeopardy* above.

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