On Monday, May 27, James Holzhauer won his twenty-eighth straight game of Jeopardy!, putting him within $300,000 of the all-time record set by Ken Jennings, who won an astounding $2,520,700 during his 74-game winning streak way back in 2004.
In a recent interview with Good Morning America, Ken Jennings admitted even he didn’t see Holzhauer’s unprecedented dominance coming.
“For 15 years I have thought somebody was going to make a run at this record because I always knew it could be done. I was there. I saw it happen,” he said. “What I did not expect was somebody could make a run at the cash record in like a third the time.”
While Jennings played a more “relaxed game”, Holzhauer has been known for his aggressive strategy, allowing him to earn money much quicker than previous winners. According to Jennings, the key to Holzhauer racking up cash at a record-pace has to do with his gambling background.
“This is a guy who wants to maximize winnings every time he’s got the chance,” said Jennings. “That’s what he does for a living. He’s a gambler and he’s very comfortable with that. He’s playing his game perfectly.”
#Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings weighs in on challenger James Holzhauer and his all-time record asking @arobach, “can I have my 2004 brain back?” https://t.co/AX4O2aTNxj pic.twitter.com/zmcC7JLrvT
— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 28, 2019
Experts have Holzhauer projected to beat Jennings’ record by June 3 and to his credit, Jennings seems to have no ill will towards his record being broken. He has even tweeted out his support over the weekend after Holzhauer passed $2 million of winnings from Jeopardy!
Phenomenal. That’s like, global-warming-graph Jeopardy performance. Welcome to the $2M club, James. https://t.co/lRBs5aJXJd
— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) May 25, 2019
Holzhauer’s incredible gameplay has also managed to impress longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, who told Good Morning America that he seems to have “no weaknesses.”
“He has forced me to change a view that I’ve had for many years … that the Ken Jennings record will never be broken,” Trebek said.
