'Jeopardy!' finishes year with Utahn going strong

"Jeopardy!" finished its 20th year Friday, and Utahn Ken Jennings is still undefeated. For 38 consecutive program days Jennings has returned to dominate the game — and to get a little richer.

But Friday he got a lot richer.

Jennings won $75,000, shattering the syndicated game show's one-day record of $52,000, a figure he had tied on three previous shows.

And he's not finished yet. He'll be back on "Jeopardy!" when the 21st season begins in six weeks.

Friday's earnings gave Jennings a total of $1,321,660.

He should return on Labor Day to continue his championship run, though neither he nor anyone at "Jeopardy!" will confirm or deny — well, anything — about the details.

In fact, they aren't talking to the media . . . unless you're Jay Leno. And they weren't even telling Leno much.

Jennings, a 30-year-old software engineer who lives in Murray, was a guest on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" on Thursday. Jennings told Leno that he had to remain tight-lipped because "there are 'Jeopardy!' snipers in the audience."

A couple of weeks ago, Jennings told CBS's "Early Show" that he wasn't really trying to win more than $52,000 on a single show, a record set last year by Brian Weikle.

"I think it's pretty obvious that I'm trying to intentionally not pass that record," Jennings said. "It belonged to a great player who held that record last season, who didn't have the benefit of unlimited winnings. I didn't want to just beat him by a dollar. That would have been a jerky thing to do."

It may be a gracious act from a contestant who grins and nods in disbelief each day as his growing $1 million-plus total is announced. But Trebek remarked Thursday, "You're doin' this just to bug me, aren't you?"

The next day, Friday, Jennings had already earned $51,400 when the "Final Jeopardy" round came up.

Category: "Shakespeare."

"Answer": "Two of the four Shakespeare plays in which ghosts appear on stage."

Jennings' "question": "What are 'Hamlet' and 'Richard III'?" ("Macbeth" and "Julius Caesar" also would have been correct.)

When the amount of his wager was revealed, it was $23,600. When that was added to his total, Jennings had $75,000 for the day.

"Will it never end for this talented young man?" Trebek said — adding that Jennings will return when the next season begins.

The only other time a returning champion has continued past the end of any game-show season was when Thom McKee was on the 1980 incarnation of "Tic Tac Dough." McKee had 26 episodes under his belt when he returned the next season for another 17 victories.

With six more wins, Jennings could break that all-time record.