Ken Jennings Bites the Hand That Fed Him Millions of Bucks

Millions of Americans fell in love with the geeky braniac Ken Jennings in the summer of 2004 when he appeared night after night on "Jeopardy!" and its host, Alex Trebek. Jennings’ amazing winning streak dramatically increased viewership of the show as his winnings continued to accumulate, and his name became familiar fodder for water cooler chats all across the country. People were particularly impressed by the down-to-earth things Jennings had to say about his family, his church, and his home town of Provo, Utah. Viewers came to feel as though they knew him, because he seemed like such a regular guy, and a nice guy at that. And when he became the all-time "Jeopardy!" champion, winning $2.5 million, Americans everywhere felt like he was the embodiment of the American Dream.

It didn’t take long for Jennings’ celebrity status to go to his head. He wrote a book, hired an agent, appeared on talk shows and in television commercials, and created his own website, "Confessions of a Trivial Mind" (www.ken-jennings.com). His highly articulate and interesting personal blog entries fascinated many, and his celebrity status just continued to simmer as people visited his site and learned more about his inner thoughts. But on July 19th he decided that people loved him enough that he could say whatever he wanted to say. So he did just that.

Jennings’ July 19th posting to his personal blog, titled "Dear Jeopardy," was a shockingly sarcastic rant about the show that made him a household name. For some reason that will remain forever locked in his trivial mind, Jennings went on a tirade against the Sony Television game show, saying that the show’s image is outdated and calling it "the Dorian Gray of syndication." He expounded on that comment by saying, "You seem to think ‘change’ means replacing a blue polyethylene backdrop with a slightly different shade of blue polyethylene backdrop every presidential election or so." He said that the median viewing age of the show is 91, and the questions are about "some effete left-coast crap nobody’s heard of, like "Opera," or, um, "U.S. History" or whatever…I mean, wake me up when you come up with something that middle America actually cares about." Jennings lists a few suggestions for categories, such as PlayStation, Reality TV, Men’s Magazines, and Skanks from Reality TV Who Got Naked in Men’s Magazines.

Perhaps the saddest bits of his missive were his remarks about the show’s host, Alex Trebek, who has been at the helm of the popular game show for over 20 years. Trebek is one of the most respected, most well-loved game show hosts in the history of television. But Jennings said that "Trebek’s not getting any younger, so why not have five attractive young people reading some of the clues instead," alluding to the fact that in recent years some of the questions in each show have been delivered by other people. He says that he knows the old folks love Alex, but "nobody knows he died in that fiery truck crash a few years back and was immediately replaced with the Trebektron 4000 (I see your engineers still can’t get the mustache right, by the way.)"

The things that made Ken Jennings so beloved by Americans seem to have completely disappeared. The man who was admired for his loyalty to his church said in his rant that he was tired of "that damn electric blue everywhere in your decor."

When the Associated Press and other media outlets ran stories about the startling rant by Jennings, he was quick to respond by saying that the whole post was just sarcasm intended to give people a laugh. He also posted on his site a message to his critics. "For the record," he said, "I’ve loved ‘Jeopardy!’ since I was a kid, as anyone who talks to me for about five minutes knows. Making goofy jokes about TV shows isn't `bashing.' I believe it's the whole reason Al Gore invented the Internet." He also directly addressed the people who had posted critical comments on his site’s message board, calling them "humor-impaired sock puppet users."
Two years ago Ken Jennings was living proof that a nice middle-class guy really can find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Two weeks ago, he became living proof that money really can turn a nice guy into a narcissistic jerk. Jennings himself verified that with the signoff he used to end his "sarcastic" missive: "Remember, I only criticize because I…Love, Ken."