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Channels with Peter Kafka

Ken Jennings on the future of Jeopardy!

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Tv & Film, Business News, News

4.4585 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2023

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ken Jennings won 74 straight episodes of Jeopardy back in 2004. Somehow he’s turned that winning streak into a career, and now co-hosts the surprisingly resilient game show. Peter Kafka talked to Jennings about his job and much more at the Crosscut Ideas Festival in Seattle. And while the sound quality isn’t pristine, the conversation covers a lot of ground. Jennings, for instance, talks about the tension between Jeopardy’s producers, who want to refresh the show in the hopes of bringing in new viewers, with its large and loyal audience, who want things kept the way they are. Also discussed: Why you still can’t stream Jeopardy! (blame it on syndication), the show’s attempts to diversify the contestant pool, and how, as a man who once competed against an AI named Watson (and lost), he sees AI could be used as a tool to help Jeopardy! in the future. Featuring: Ken Jennings (@KenJennings), Jeopardy! Co-Host Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:00.7

this is recode media peter kofka that's me and today I've got great news. It's that I recently

1:12.6

traveled to Seattle and when I was there I got to interview Ken Jennings, the man who set

1:17.8

the world record for Jeopardy wins back in 2004 and has parlayed that into a full career.

1:23.2

He is currently the co-host of Jeopardy, which remains one of the most popular shows on TV.

1:29.3

This was a great interview.

1:31.2

There's a ton here for Jeopardy nerds, but also a discussion about the way the media environment has changed,

1:35.9

why Jeopardy works in that radically changed environment.

1:39.4

And really interestingly, to me, the real tension that Jennings and his coworkers feel about their desire

1:45.7

to modernize the show to try to reach new audiences because the old ones are going to go away.

1:51.3

And the fact that the people who watch Jeopardy today don't want it to change at all, ever.

1:57.8

Ken is really frank and candid and curious and he's a great talker. This is my platonic

2:03.3

ideal of a recode media interview. I also have some bad news. We've got the audio back from

2:09.3

the Crosscut's Ideas Festival who hosted our conversation and that audio is not very good because

2:15.0

I think the technical term is shit happens.

...

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