Key Points
Ken Jennings is getting candid about which Jeopardy categories he’s mastered, and which he needs to study more.
“One of my stronger categories [is movies],” he recently told PEOPLE at the TCM Classic Film Festival. “I grew up as a kid reading Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide… and I just wanted to see everything.”
Jennings also said he’s using the Los Angeles trip to brush up on his “Major League ballpark trivia.”
You wouldn’t expect a former software engineer to be an expert on all things show business. But you should know to expect the unexpected from Ken Jennings by now.
The 51-year-old former computer whiz and Jeopardy champ, who eventually took over as host of the long-running trivia game show after Alex Trebek’s death in 2020, quizzes panels of contestants every weeknight about subjects ranging from national marine sanctuaries, to military history, to Germanic linguistics.
During his historic 2004 run that locked in his forever champ status, Jennings proved fluent in just about everything. But there’s still one category that fans fans may not give him enough credit for knowing front to back.
“One of my stronger categories [is movies],” he recently told PEOPLE.
Jennings revealed this bit insider info at the perfect event in the perfect city. He let his inner film buff out on the red carpet at the 2026 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood on April 30. The quizmaster was invited there to host a live version of Kennections, the puzzle series he contributes to Mental Floss, and to introduce a screening of the sci-fi classic The Thing From Another World.
“I grew up as a kid reading Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide as if it were… whatever other kids read, Harry Potter or Hardy Boys,” he explained, referring to famed film critic and historian’s annual compendium of movie reviews and recommendations. “My book was the Leonard Maltin Movie Guide, and I just wanted to see everything.”
Jennings joked, “Luckily, my parents had a wall of VHS [tapes]… They were illegally taping off TCM. Sorry. That’s why I’m here to support the network.”
Ken Jennings and Dylan Jennings in Seattle in 2025
Credit: Ken Jennings/Instagram
Still, Jennings concedes that there are areas where he needs work.
“I’m trying to see all the Major League ballparks with my son,” he said of the L.A. trip. “A lot of these are places I’ve never been, and so now I’m like, ‘Hey, I have trivia about Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. I know about the fountains and the waterfalls now… So I’m accumulating Major League ballpark trivia at an alarming rate.”
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Jennings’ twin records of most consecutive wins and highest earnings from regular-season gameplay haven’t been touched in the 22 years since he swept the series to a staggering $2.5 million grand total.
But even if a contestant were to come close to unseating him, Jennings wouldn’t mind; in fact, he’d welcome it.
‘Jeopardy’ host Ken Jennings
Credit: Christopher Willard/Disney
Jennings spoke to Entertainment Weekly on that same red carpet about Jamie Ding, who took home $882,605 after a streak of 31 wins that came to an end on April 27.
“I always get very excited when somebody’s got a run,” Jennings revealed. “I mean, selfishly, I want to see somebody beat my record, so I’m like, ‘This could be it!'”
He explained that instead of jealousy, he imagines he would feel “more empathy, because the pressure is on this guy, and very few people know what that pressure feels like.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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