GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Ken Jennings says it's his first time in Grand Rapids, though he knows a fun fact about the city. He's a "longtime fan" of President Gerald Ford, who grew up in east Grand Rapids.
In 2004, Jennings became the winningest contestant in the history of Jeopardy!, a trivia-based game show, after nailing 74 victories in a row and $2.52 million in prize money. In 2022, he returned to the show, this time starring as a co-host with Mayim Bialik.
When he came to Calvin University on Monday, as part of the university's annual January Series lecture events, Jennings made a wholehearted "defense of trivia."
He said contestants weren't allowed to use the word "trivia" while participating on the game show. "The idea was that it would kind of lower the esteem of jeopardy as an American institution, to not call it a quiz show. And it's the first time I'd really thought about this, that trivia has an image problem."
Using the word "trivia," which derives from the same word for "unimportant," implies that trivia is just that.
Jennings argues the knowledge of Presidents, capitals, and history facts is immensely meaningful.
"It's easy to learn stuff. You can be learning wherever you are: listening to a podcast, looking at a billboard, in a conversation with a new person," Jennings said. "You could be learning something new almost every hour of the day, and it's a shame not to. That's, that's what builds us as people."
He also told the audience a few behind-the-scenes facts from his time on Jeopardy! According to Jennings, contestants can't press their buzzers the second they have the question— they have to wait until the hosts read the full answer.
If a contestant slaps the buzzer too early, they pay a penalty of a fraction of the second.
Jennings says it's important, when competing on Jeopardy!, to be smart, in addition to well-timed, and you have to be able to move on from missed answers.
"The contestant coordinators always tell the contests, 'Think about Taylor Swift'. Shake it off," he says. "You just got to leave the mistake behind because you'll probably think about the next clue right."
READ MORE: Calvin University's January Series offers free lectures
