Since Ken has just passed the $1 million mark on "Jeopardy", this might be a good time to ponder whether he just might be the best game show contestant of all time. In order to help make a determination, let's take a look at some other memorable contestants and compare:
Thom McKee ("Tic Tac Dough", 1980)
Thom is the contestant most often compared to Ken, as he had an amazing 43-game winning streak that had to be interrupted for the summer hiatus between two seasons. Thom won over $300,000 in cash and prizes (probably comparable to a million in today's dollars) and certainly had great knowledge. He became famous during his run, as Barry-Enright ran ads for their program with his picture on them. A lot of the material Thom dealt with though was popculture oriented that arguably wasn't too hard. Plus, he didn't have to beat two other people to the buzzer.
Since "Joker's Wild" had to forceably "retire" a contestant who had a long winning streak in 1983 because of being on a CBS O&O, one wonders if Thom's run would have been allowed to go on as long as it did had they been on the CBS O&O's in 1980. Luckily, he was allowed to continue.
John Carpenter ("Who Wants to be a Millionaire", 1999)
John's probably just about the most memorable "WWTBAM" contestant because he was the first to win the million, and he did it without using any lifelines. For anyone who has gotten on the show and won the top prize (11 people now), they should be commended. I think it pales in comparison to Ken for two reasons - there are only 15 questions on "WWTBAM", and it's been stated that John's questions weren't really all that hard compared to the other contestants who have won the top prize.
Michael Larson ("Press Your Luck", 1984)
Larson's feat will never be forgotten, and what he did was pretty amazing considering that he memorized the patterns, actually got on the show and had the concentration to stop the board at the right time so many times in front of the audience and cameras. $110,000 in one show beats the second-place record by about three-to-one. However, since the questions on "PYL" are usually pretty easy, and Larson was only on for one day (OK, two days), he has to rank down on the list.
Dan Avila ("Greed", 1999)
Dan has to be included because he was the only one in the history of "Greed" that had the guts to risk $200,000 to go for the top prize of $2 million. He seems like a likable, easy-going guy who didn't let the disappointment of missing by one answer affect him on camera. He was reportedly on several other game shows, but none of those seem to be around.
John Goss, Alice Conkwright ("Sale of the Century", circa 1985)
Both John and Alice displayed great knowledge, and you'd have to at least compare them to Ken because they were competing with two other contestants they had to continuously beat to the buzzer. Both had the courage to take risks to win "Sale's" biggest jackpots, and you have to wonder how long each one could have gone on had they not been forced to retire once they won it all. However, "Sale's" questions usually weren't anywhere near as hard as "Jeopardy's" usually are.
Charles Van Doren ("Twenty-One", 1956)
No list would be complete without including arguably the most famous game show contestant of all time, Charles Van Doren. He was a very smart man who probably could have gone a long way on his own, but because willingly took part in the game show scandals of the '50s, we'll never know how far he could have gone on his own.
My concensus: Ken's the best of all time, based on the fact that "Jeopardy's" questions are usually very tough, he constantly has to beat two other people to the buzzer, is hardly ever wrong and the fact that he has done this so many times (30 wins as of this writing) and still found a way to come out on top each time. The last few shows haven't even been close - he's blowing everyone out of the water. He's answered over 1000 questions in his 30 shows - something nobody else has come close to.
Congratulations!
