The cookie crumbles for Ken Jennings

Ken Jennings finally lost in his 74th outing after collecting a haul in excess of $2.5 million. Ken Jennings and his rarefied ilk of trivia demigods in the United States come closest to matching the much larger pool of quizzing talent in India. I could be biased but I think as a quiz contest, Jeopardy while still very good does not compare in standards to Mastermind India or even the BBC Mastermind -- two series that have displayed extraordinary quizzing talent but themselves have often been looked down upon contemptuously by the nerdy quiz fanatics that prowl from university cultural to university cultural in Bangalore, Madras, Bombay and Ahmedabad. The quiznet group on Yahoo has a huge following and there are several much less-recognised offshoots of it which draw an equally large crowd of starry-eyed prospective quizzers (at one point that included me) who would religiously have a go at every question popped at the dozens of quiz shows and upon a wrong guess would pour over reams of material on Black Sabbath, Calvin and Hobbes, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and the 1936 Olympics. But then, Ken Jennings has $2.5 million and a book contract by virtue of his status as unvanquished quizzing star in the United States and all that the scores of lunatics in IIT, KREC, St. Xaviers and RV College, Bangalore have to show for their efforts is hurt pride, failing grades, adulation from an ephemerally crazed horde of juniors who soon learn to look beyond their own limitations and the prowess of the demigods, and the rest of their lives sniping and sneering at mere TV contestants.

Ken Jennings meets his match

Ken Jennings, Jeopardy style

Ken Jennings: Wikipedia entry

April 2004

January 2004 - March 2004

October 2003 - January 2004

July 2003 - October 2003

May 2003 - June 2003

April 2003

January 2003 - April 2003

2002

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