» ‘Jeopardy!’ host Ken Jennings has ‘100% empathy’ for show fails

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While the rest of us are at home laughing when Jeopardy! contestants fail hilariously, host Ken Jennings feels “100% empathy” when he sees players struggling onstage.

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Speaking to Fox News at the opening night red carpet for the TCM Classic Film Festival, Jennings revealed a key difference between himself and his predecessor, the late Alex Trebek.

“Alex was a perfect host, but if there’s one difference between us, it’s that I remember what it was like to be a contestant. My heart just goes out to these people,” Jennings told the outlet.

Jennings, who has won 74 consecutive games and over $2,500,000, making him the highest-winning player in regular season play, recognizes that participants are entering “a high-pressure environment” in front of millions of viewers.

“It’s their first time on TV, and we throw them into this crucible. It’s a high-pressure environment, so I’m always thinking, how can I make these people comfortable? Please, please get this right, somebody,” he said. “I’m 100% empathy out there for these three people.”

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Jeopardy! blunders have a tendency to go viral.

Last month, viewers were stunned when all three contestants were left baffled by a Final Jeopardy! question that involved Cheers.

“It all comes down to classic TV shows. That’s the category for Final Jeopardy!” Jennings said as he introduced the final clue, which read: “Posted over the door of this show’s setting was a notice reading, ‘Maximum Room Capacity 75 Persons.’”

With just $2,200 to her name and a $2,198 wager, Lily St. Laurent, from Bakersfield, Calif., was clearly perplexed. All she could come up with was, “What is a TV show I don’t know.”

“I think we might have to give you credit for that,” Jennings said. “No wait, if you give you credit then maybe it’s wrong. It’s a paradox.”

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David DeBacker from Ypsilanti, Mich., was in second place with $15,600 and guessed a classic TV show from a different era. “What is MASH?” he wrote.

“That’s a good guess, but that is not it,” Jennings said after DeBacker’s incorrect guess cost him $11,111.

First place contestant Alex DeFrank from Brooklyn, N.Y., had a big lead with $25,200, but he also answered, “M*A*S*H.”

“I’m very alarmed to learn that the ’80s shows of my childhood are now classic TV — What is Cheers. The bar in Cheers,” Jennings said, clearly surprised that no one was able to get it right.

The triple stumper followed another viral fail from earlier this season when returning contestant and self-proclaimed Celine Dion super-fan Drew Goins flubbed a $2,000 question involving one of the singer’s biggest hits in the category “90s No. 1 Hits.”

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The clue read, “Sharing its title with an earlier, more upbeat Huey Lewis hit, it was No. 1 for Celine Dion in 1994.”

But Goins was unable to answer.

“Oh, she’s going to be mad, Drew,” Jennings joked before reading the answer, “Like Huey Lewis, Celine Dion sang a song called The Power of Love.”

The show’s producers poked fun at Goins’ miss on social media, sharing a clip of his blunder and writing, “Here’s hoping Drew’s heart will go on.”

Following Trebek’s death in 2020, Jennings stepped in as Jeopardy! host in 2021, co-fronting the program with Mayim Bialik from 2022 to 2023.

In an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year, Jennings opened up about taking over from Trebek, telling the publication that he was worried his own grief might affect his performance.

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“Everybody there was very emotional, and I had to be the one talking through it, even though I probably knew him least of all 100 people on set, crew and the staff. It was very scary. You’re aware that the audience does not want you there. They’re like me, they want the other guy, and I was missing him too. I’m like, ‘I don’t want to be here. I would give anything to not be here right now,’” Jennings admitted.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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