Fans are always asking Ken Jennings — one of Jeopardy’s biggest winners — if he thinks his 74-game win streak from 2004 will ever be broken, and while current champion Scott Riccardi isn’t quite knocking on that door just yet, his run on the 2025 TV schedule has drawn quite a bit of attention. Jennings discussed the current buzz surrounding one of the best game shows ever, and there’s something ominous about his comment.
On July 24, Scott Riccardi won his 16th game of Jeopardy!, tying him at No. 10 in the record books for Consecutive Games Won. Enthusiasm started to build around the New Jersey engineer when he became an official super champion — a moniker bestowed to contestants with double-digit victories — and Ken Jennings spoke to TV Insider about whether he thinks his record is in … jeopardy. He said:
It’s been a while since we’ve had a super champion, so Scott’s run has been really exciting for us. It’s always exciting to have a super champ. I’m generally rooting for them to break my record. I mean, I’m not rooting for any particular player, but I like the idea that my record is breakable. Like I think that’s true, and I just want to be there firsthand and watch it if it happens.
Ken Jennings admitted to having to temper his emotions a bit as host of the game show, though. He certainly can’t be cheering for one contestant over the others, which he recognized, continuing:
So I always get excited about that, but the line you’re trying to walk is you don’t want to talk up the super champ too much. You want to come out on stage and be a bit of a hype man to tell the audience what kind of talent we’re looking at here. But there’s two other contestants that do not want to hear Scott’s bona fides at the top of the game, and so you want to walk a tightrope of, let’s not demoralize the other two players, because there’s always an upset.
I understand that Ken Jennings has to let the home audience know where the champion stands, what the stakes are, whether they’re close to any records, etc. However, I also sometimes get the feeling when these kinds of statistics are given at the top of a game that it’s a bit like calling out a no-hitter in progress. Like the host’s mere mention of a streak will jinx it.
Also, is it just me, or does Ken Jennings’ final thought on the matter sound a bit foreboding? He concluded:
Everybody loses on Jeopardy! eventually. That’s the ironclad law.
Ken Jennings sounds a bit devious here, but it is true. Death, taxes and losing on Jeopardy! are life’s only certainties, as ole Ben Franklin would say. Speaking of Benjamins, as of Thursday, July 24, Scott Riccardi had accumulated a whopping $455,000.
Jeopardy! Season 41 ends with the Friday, July 25, game, so we’ll have to wait to see if that “ironclad law” is enacted in this cycle, or if Scott Riccardi is given a reprieve to continue his run into next season, when episodes will also be available for next-day streaming with either a Hulu subscription or a Peacock subscription. Check your local listings to see when the game show airs in your area.
