74 games and $2,520,700 later, the incredible Jeopardy! winning streak of Ken Jennings is over.   It began on June 2 and ended November 30 when Nancy Zerg came up with the correct Final Jeopardy! answer.   Ken didn't. More on this later.

On Tuesday night's game, Zerg kept pace with Jennings in round one, with  categories based on Seinfeld episodes, i.e., 'Festivus,'  and  'The Contest.'

Jennings was uncharacteristically mediocre in that round — behind after the first commercial break — though he did answer the Daily Double and ended up with $10,600 to Zerg's $4800 as the two went into Double Jeopardy.   The kid on the end was never a factor.

As the DJ round commenced, it appeared Jennings had hit his usual dominator stride, but Zerg was still able to hang in there and stay with him.  As regular Jeopardy! viewers know, one of the main reasons for the Ken Jennings winning streak has been his Daily Double expertise.   He almost always finds them and answers them correctly, adding to his comfortable lead.  Not last night.

Jennings found both Daily Doubles. The answer to the first, in a Patton category, was 'Bastogne.'  Now Ken got most of the others about the WW2 general right. Why not this one?

In the 'Funny Hats' category, he did not know that a bell—shaped hat was called a 'cloche.' 

My skepticism increased.

At the end of the last round, Ken Jennings had $14,000. Nancy Zerg had $10,000.  The Final Jeopardy category was 'Business & Industry' and the answer was 'Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white collar employees work only 4 months a year.'

Zerg  wrote her answer, 'H & R Block' down pretty quickly.

Jennings took almost all the allotted time and wrote down 'Federal Express.'

No way, Jose, I said to myself.    Skepticism turned into belief; belief that Jennings knew the answer absolutely and positively, and that, for whatever reason, decided it was time to go.   Maybe the reason was the mere two and a—half million he'd accumulated; that his run had gone on long enough.  It was getting boring, except for a couple of occasions, watching him mowing down the opposition.  As I said in my previous article The Unbearable Brightness Of Being Ken  it was like minor leaguers going up against the pros.

The question remains:  did he lose on purpose?   Ken Jennings will now be making the rounds of popular TV talk shows and will no doubt have an answer to that question that won't put him in jeopardy.

John B. Dwyer  12 1 04