While I don’t agree with Dana Stevens that the Tour de France pales next to the Jeopardy! juggernaut, I do have to say that this piqued my interest:
But the real TV story this week has to be the undisputed 25-game reign of Jeopardy! supercontestant Ken Jennings. As of yesterday, the 30-year-old software engineer from Salt Lake City had won a total of $788,960, beating the previous record-holder, Tom Walsh, by a margin of over $600,000.
Of course, the first thing I thought was, 25-game reign? — isn’t there a five-game limit? And there was…until this season:
Granted, this unprecedented victory streak was also made possible by this season’s change in Jeopardy! rules — the term limits have been lifted, as it were, so that the run of a winning contestants may continue indefinitely, instead of being stopped after five consecutive games.
(Hat tip to Slashdot.)