Only Sharp Trivia Fans Can Crack Ken Jennings’s Kennections Quiz This Week

Welcome to Kennections, a weekly quiz created by Jeopardy! host and champion Ken Jennings. Here’s how to play: All five answers to the questions below have something in common. Can you figure it out?

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One of the most notable names in American game shows, Ken Jennings began his career as a software engineer with a knack for trivia and evolved into a history-making competitor and host. His journey to Jeopardy! began as a child, watching the series after school each day.

In 2004, Jennings received news that would change his life: he would be competing on Jeopardy!.

Jennings’s Jeopardy! run was beyond inspirational—it broke records and cemented his status in game show history. Thanks to a rule that allowed champions to return indefinitely, Jennings won a remarkable 74 games, earning over $2 million and kicking off his career on television. Not only did he become a fixture on talk shows and in the media, but he also returned to Jeopardy! for multiple tournaments, and in 2020, he won the “Greatest of All Time” title over Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer.

Following the passing of Alex Trebek, who hosted Jeopardy! for 37 seasons, Jennings became the permanent host of the show in 2023. His experience as a contestant informs his approach to hosting, telling Mental Floss that because he “remember[s] what it was like to be a contestant,” he knows “the panic” that comes with it.

“There’s a lot of big feelings when you’re a Jeopardy! player,” Jennings shared with us. “And so every morning I come out and I try to chat with the players, I try to talk them down. I convey to them, if possible, that I’m on their side and everybody on the show is on their side, and we just want to see three people play well.”

“I hope it calms people down because I know from experience—it’s very daunting to be placed into that high-pressure cooker environment the very first time, probably, that you’re on TV,” he added. “And it also just brings back fond memories. Every time I get to walk out on that set, I think about the summer of 2004 and what a crazy thing that was and how my life changed forever.”

In addition to his hosting duties, Jennings is a bestselling author, also known for his Kennections quizzes, which he compiled into a book, The Complete Kennections, earlier this year. He has been creating Kennections challenges for Mental Floss for nearly a decade.

Check back with Mental Floss next week for the newest Kennections quiz from Ken Jennings.

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