KEN Jennings has made an emotional off-camera confession about Jeopardy! champion Alex DeFrank after continuing his impressive winning streak, The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal.
The game show contestant made a triumphant return to the game after previously winning the Sports Jeopardy! special that Alex Trebek hosted back in 2014.
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On Monday, Alex, a furniture inventory specialist from Brooklyn, New York, won his second consecutive game.
Despite only being a two-day champ, Alex had already scored winnings of $56,401 – which he is looking to increase on Tuesday’s episode.
During his first game, Alex dominated the competition – having buzzed in on nearly every answer and getting a whopping 72% of them correct.
His impressive game led to him having almost $40k going into Final Jeopardy! – an amount far higher than most players have at that same point in the game.
Alex’s high intellect and “cool and calm” demeanor has made him a fan-favorite of season 41 – and one of the admirers he gained was the show’s very own host, Ken, 50.
An insider said of Alex filming the show: “He’s super sharp and is a really cool dude.
“At one point while taping, Ken said when cameras weren’t rolling that Alex really impressed him and even said that Alex reminded him of himself.
“He made a comment after Alex’s first game that he played like him during his original run.”
The insider added that: “You can tell Ken was super impressed with him throughout the game and had high hopes for him to go far.
“Alex seemed extremely moved by the high praise and even a little emotional after winning and hearing the kind words.”
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
On Tuesday’s game, Alex was able to continue his winning streak against two tough opponents.
Alex went up against Lily St. Laurent, a student assistant from Bakersfield, California and David DeBacker, an architectural designer originally from Ypsilanti, Michigan.
The returning champ was in second place most of the game but nabbed the third Daily Double – boosting his score by $6,000.
The wise move put the sports buff in the lead against David while Lily remained in third.
Heading into Final Jeopardy! on his second game, Alex was in the lead with $25,200 while David was behind with $15,600 and Lily had $2,200.
The last round proved to be a triple stumper as all three contestants missed Final Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! Contestant Rules
Passing Jeopardy!’s online Anytime Test is hard enough, but there are also many rules players must follow once they make it to the stage:
- The returning champion is always at the leftmost podium and keeps playing until they lose.
- Contestants don’t have to say “who is” or “what is” in the first round but must do so in Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy.
- Contestants can change their responses as long as Ken Jennings or the judges haven’t made a ruling.
- The minimum wager for a Daily Double is $5. The minimum wager for Final Jeopardy! is $0.
- Written responses in Final Jeopardy! do not have to be spelled correctly, but they must be phonetically correct (the judges decide this).
- If there’s a tie after Final Jeopardy, the tied players enter a bonus clue shootout, and whoever buzzes in first correctly wins.
- If all three contestants wager everything in Final Jeopardy! and are incorrect, leaving them with $0, there will be no returning champion (it’s happened before—six times).
Alex still came out on top, ending his third win with $19,199 – putting his three-day total at $75,600.
David finished the game in second with $4,489 while Lily had just $2 at the end of the episode.
Fans were thrilled for Alex’s triumph, with one saying: “Way to go Alex!!! It’s been a blast cheering you on from home.”
“Congrats to Alex for breaking the slump of 1-2 game champions,” someone said of other winners this season who lose after just a single or a couple games.
“Alex is so much fun to watch, I hope he continues for awhile,” a third optimistically wrote.
While one more agreed with the beloved host, adding: “Does anyone else feel Alex reminds them of Ken as a contestant?
“Something about him slaying most questions but being so chill about it. Idk seems very Ken-esque.”
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