Jeopardy host Ken Jennings, 52, is speaking out about how the long-running game show serves as an important antidote to the MAGA movement.
“On Jeopardy, you can’t say, ‘What is, the moon landing never happened, Ken.’ You know we’re not going to go to the tape for that one. No alternative facts on Jeopardy,” Jennings said on the podcast Who’s With Me? with W. Kamau Bell. “On Jeopardy, questions have answers, or, I guess, answers have questions. And I think that’s kind of refreshing.”
Jennings, who holds the record for the longest winning streak in the history of the show with 74 consecutive wins in 2004, started guest-hosting Jeopardy in 2021 following Alex Trebek’s death. Starting in July 2022, he became a permanent co-host, sharing the role with Mayim Bialik; in December 2023, Jennings became the permanent solo host.
Jennings is also an outspoken critic of Trump and conservative politics on various social media platforms like Bluesky, posting calls to abolish ICE and advocating for trans rights. He said he admires television hosts like Jimmy Kimmel who speak in a “direct, sincere way” about their political beliefs.
“Thank goodness that there’s somebody on TV just being a normal guy saying it’s OK to have these opinions,” he said, adding that he’s wary of the “culture of fear” many celebrities feel around speaking up.
“Jeopardy is so important to me, but if I had to sacrifice either my favorite game show or my convictions of right and wrong, that’s not really a close call, you know?” Jennings said. “If I’m watching ICE in the Twin Cities, there we go. That’s going to make me mad, and I’m not going to react out of anger, but I might go to a protest, and people might see the host of Jeopardy at a protest.”
“I don’t think we’re in a moment where it’s going to age particularly well to keep your head down,” he added.
Jennings explained that Jeopardy’s audience members hold diverse political views, and the trivia show can reach an array of people without alienating any group. Its widespread trivia questions provide the “building blocks” to make informed decisions, he said.
The show itself is apolitical, he said, but its commitment to truth means it also offsets MAGA’s whirlwind of false information, however subtly.
“We have a very diverse audience,” Jennings said. “It’s young, it’s old, it’s blue states, it’s red states. It’s not just like, blue-haired baristas watching Jeopardy. America watches Jeopardy. We, for half an hour, agree that, actually, these are the facts. No matter what the podcaster told you about vaccines, these are the facts, and we will cite our sources if you need us to.”
“For half an hour, expertise and scholarly consensus still matter,” he continued. “And maybe that’s a way forward.”
