Ken Jennings on Millionaire this Friday

[Prizes]

Total American game show winnings record by an individual, and most consecutive wins on a show, Thom McKee's old record.

If you're going to qualify them as being "American" records, then they're not "World Records", are they?

Mea culpa. My faulty basis was reading Chris' post to mean any sort of record, no matter if it only applied to an individual country, as I forgot it was World Records week.

/Guinness currently has at least one 'world record' wrong
//suck it, Trebek

[vtown7]

Watching the show right now and I'm wondering - is Ken the first to go from Millionaire helper (having served as "ask the expert" previously in a family week) to non-celebrity contestant?
R.

[Kevin Prather]

Probably would have to be. What other celebrity helpers would qualify as a non-celebrity contestant?

Unless you wanna count former phone-a-friends. Then I bet there are plenty.

[Thunder]

I would call Ken Jennings a "celebrity contestant" here.

[Matt Ottinger]

I would call Ken Jennings a "celebrity contestant" here.

We're in interesting and fairly uncharted territory here.  Ken is clearly an invited "celebrity" contestant.  Nevertheless, he's playing to win money for himself, not some designated charity.  Traditionally, those two things have not gone together.  So obviously, traditionalists are going to have a hard time with the semantics of it.

[Kevin Prather]

To me, the only hang-up is the fact that he was invited instead of trying out. Otherwise, celebrity status doesn't really enter into it. Celebrities, to varying degrees, have been run-of-the-mill contestants on game shows before, Millionaire included.

[BillCullen1]

Jennings was also on GSN's Grand Slam where he won the top prize of $100,000. He was invited on that show as well.

[Kevin Prather]

Jennings was also on GSN's Grand Slam where he won the top prize of $100,000. He was invited on that show as well.

All the contestants were invited for Grand Slam. Completely different animal.

[clemon79]

Jennings was also on GSN's Grand Slam where he won the top prize of $100,000. He was invited on that show as well.

All the contestants were invited for Grand Slam. Completely different animal.

Not to mention, the entire damn REASON they were invited...was because they were successful former game-show contestants.

(I wasn't gonna bother at first, but since you started, might as well finish.)

[Kevin Prather]

Not to mention, the entire damn REASON they were invited...was because they were successful former game-show contestants.

(I wasn't gonna bother at first, but since you started, might as well finish.)

You got to the point better than I did.

[BillCullen1]

I was just saying that Ken was on that show too, since I'm sure people forgot that. Anyway, the result of Ken's appearance on Millionaire:

He decided to walk with $100K. Regardless of the result, I thought most of Ken's questions were stacked in his favor.

[TLEberle]

By that do you mean easier in general (like yesterday's celebrity episode) or geared to fall into Things Ken Knows (which could be lots of stuff)?

Given all of the promotion and buildup I thought the final resolution was a bit of a letdown.

[BillCullen1]

By that do you mean easier in general (like yesterday's celebrity episode) or geared to fall into Things Ken Knows (which could be lots of stuff)?

Given all of the promotion and buildup I thought the final resolution was a bit of a letdown.

I meant the latter, and I agree that it was a bit of a letdown.