Ken Jennings is coming clean about his original run on Jeopardy!
Over 20 years after his legendary 74-game streak on the iconic game show, Jennings is looking back on his interviews with former host Alex Trebek—including one moment when he wasn’t exactly truthful with the audience.
Ken Jennings Admits He Lied in a ‘Jeopardy!’ Interview with Alex Trebek
While spilling the tea in a new Instagram video, the now-host of Jeopardy! looked back at one of the contestant interviews during his run on the show in the early ‘2000s, specifically when he introduced Trebek to his “good luck charm.”
In the throwback clip, Jennings can be seen holding a plush toy Totoro, the titular character from the 1988 anime film, My Neighbor Totoro.
‘Jeopardy!’s Ken Jennings reveals the ‘lie’ he told during his original interviews with Alex Trebek.
The video shows Trebek introducing Jennings’ “lucky charm,” while telling the audience that the small plush toy was “perhaps the reason he has been so successful” during his Jeopardy! run.
But according to Jennings, 51, Totoro brought no such luck.
“So that story is essentially a lie,” Jennings admitted in the new Instagram video, despite claiming in the initial interview that he bought Totoro while he was in Asia, and that the toy gave him the special “powers” to help him win so many games.
“I did not actually have the Totoro as a good luck charm,” Jennings confessed, noting that the toy was actually something that belonged to his sister-in-law.
“I was like, ‘Hey, I’m short on stories today…Why don’t you let me have that, and I’ll pretend that I have a lucky Totoro.”
Ken Jennings’ Confession Leaves Fans Wondering How Many Other Contestants Have Lied
After hearing about how he fabricated the Totoro story, Jeopardy! fans in the comments on Instagram started to question how many other contestants have fibbed during their contestant Q+A’s.
“And to think I believed every word you said ever! 😂” one user wrote under the post, while another playfully added, “Ken I will never trust you again.”
“I am now beginning to wonder just how many stories from various contestants are actually made up” someone else added.
Another commenter wrote, “Learning that all of Ken’s facts are made up is hilarious,” as the Totoro story isn’t even the first time Jennings has admitted to bending the truth on Jeopardy!
In another Instagram post shared last month, Jennings looked back at one of his OG interviews where he claimed to like airline food—a fact he has since admitted that was a total lie.
“Yeah I don’t actually like airline food,” he said in the Sept. 11 clip, noting that he was just running out of stories since his time on the show was so extensive.
“New interesting things weren’t happening to me,” he quipped, noting that he eventually realized that nobody can “fact-check” your personal anecdotes.
“I can’t get enough of Ken’s completely false stories on his run. 😂” someone wrote on Instagram, while another said, “Ken dominated so hard, he ran out of stories.”
“Little did he know he would need a lot more than 19 stories to tell,” added another.
Jennings would end up winning 74 consecutive games, the longest winning streak in Jeopardy! history.
Related: ‘Jeopardy!’s Alex Trebek Is a ‘Halloween Icon’ in Resurfaced Clip of His Best Costumes
This story was originally reported by Parade on Oct 6, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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