--- title: Ken Jennings Is Rooting for 'Jeopardy!' Star James Holzhauer description: Ken Jennings, who currently holds the record for winning 'Jeopardy!' hopes that current star James Holzhauer tries to break his record. canonical: https://time.com/5575456/ken-jennings-jeopardy-record/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-22T17:52:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:45.142Z og:title: Ken Jennings Is Rooting for 'Jeopardy!' Star James Holzhauer og:description: "I’m rooting for James or anybody who can take a swing at that record" og:url: https://time.com/5575456/ken-jennings-jeopardy-record/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa83d48f8f490ef/698948bae76ad25e13634885/ken-jennings-jeopardy-james-holzhauer.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ken Jennings Crush Jeopardy's Winnings Record og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ken Jennings Is Rooting for 'Jeopardy!' Star James Holzhauer twitter:description: "I’m rooting for James or anybody who can take a swing at that record" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa83d48f8f490ef/698948bae76ad25e13634885/ken-jennings-jeopardy-james-holzhauer.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why This Wildly Successful 'Jeopardy!' Contestant Wants a New Star to 'Take a Swing' at His Record  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Apr 22, 2019 5:52 PM UTC  CULVER CITY, CA - JULY 14: Jeopardy host Alex Trebek, (L) poses contestant Ken Jennings after his earnings from his record breaking streak on the gameshow surpassed 1 million dollars July 14, 2004 in Culver City, California. (Photo by Jeopardy Productions via Getty Images) CULVER CITY, CA - JULY 14: Jeopardy host Alex Trebek, (L) poses contestant Ken Jennings after his earnings from his record breaking streak on the gameshow surpassed 1 million dollars July 14, 2004 in Culver City, California. (Photo by Jeopardy Productions via Getty Images)Getty Images—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Apr 22, 2019 5:52 PM UTC [Ken Jennings](http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/08/how-jeopardy-champion-ken-jennings-could-have-been-president/), who has held the title of the longest _Jeopardy!_ winning streak for the past 15 years, is rooting for the show’s [new wunderkind, James Holzhauer](http://time.com/5567182/jeopardy-single-day-record-win-100k/) to break his legendary record. Jennings, who went on a 74-game winning streak in 2004 and winning $2,520,700 along the way, revealed in an interview with [_Wired_ ](https://www.wired.com/story/ken-jennings-james-holzhauer-jeopardy/)that he was incredibly impressed with Holzhauer’s 12-episode and $850,000 run so far, a rate that will match his winnings with Jennings in less than half the time if his winning streak continues. “First of all, I’m just gobsmacked by James. It’s absolutely insane what he’s doing,” Jennings said. “This is something I would have thought was just impossible, these numbers. Statistically, he’s playing at as high a level as anyone who’s ever played the game. And then he’s got these incredibly confident wagers. He’s maximizing money. He can make two or three times what any other player ever has with that same level of play, which again is top-shelf. He’s as good as anybody. I’ve always wanted to see somebody play that way, you know?” Holzhauer, who uses his experience as a professional sports gambler, along with his deep trivia knowledge, as part of his _Jeopardy!_ strategy, has [expressed that he’d love to compete against Jennings](https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/04/jeopardy-james-holzhauer-ken-jennings-sports-gambler-winnings-strategy) in the future. Jennings, for his part, isn’t precious about his _Jeopardy!_ record and expressed surprise that it still hasn’t been broken. “I’m very excited. As a fan of the show, I’m actually rooting for James or anybody who can take a swing at that record. It’s bizarre to me that it’s still a one-off.” > [](https://twitter.com/Jeopardy/status/1118710748681687041) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5575456/ken-jennings-jeopardy-record/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5575456/ken-jennings-jeopardy-record/"},"headline":"Why This Wildly Successful 'Jeopardy!' Contestant Wants a New Star to 'Take a Swing' at His Record","datePublished":"2019-04-22T17:52:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:45.142Z","description":"\"I’m rooting for James or anybody who can take a swing at that record\"","url":"https://time.com/5575456/ken-jennings-jeopardy-record/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa83d48f8f490ef/698948bae76ad25e13634885/ken-jennings-jeopardy-james-holzhauer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa83d48f8f490ef/698948bae76ad25e13634885/ken-jennings-jeopardy-james-holzhauer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ken Jennings Crush Jeopardy's Winnings Record","caption":"Ken Jennings Crush Jeopardy's Winnings Record","creditText":"Getty Images—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5575456/ken-jennings-jeopardy-record/","name":"Why This Wildly Successful 'Jeopardy!' Contestant Wants a New Star to 'Take a Swing' at His Record"}}]}] ```