Season 39 Jeopardy! Winner Jake DeArruda took home a total of $86,000. It is a significant amount of cash winnings. When asked how he spent his newfound wealth, DeArruda turned heads with his quirky answer.
“I was 23 years old when my games aired last year, so I did what anybody under the age of 25 would do. I promptly spend the check on sports gambling and women and alcohol,” he said.
“And by that, of course, I spent 20 bucks on a college football pick ’em that went horribly wrong, 20 bucks to take my date and I to the top of the Gillette Stadium Lighthouse, and several four packs of hard cider to get through the awful Patriots season that I endured.”
Jeopardy! Host Gets Candid About ‘Cringy’ Interviews
The interview portion of Jeopardy! is always an interesting time. Some contestants give conservative answers while others take the same route that DeArruda said. Jeopardy host Ken Jennings thinks the exchange is awkward either way.
“I never liked that part. It’s a little cringy. And, even if the players tell an amazing anecdote perfectly, I mean, that’s just not the time for it, like when they interrupt a football game for Jennifer Lopez or to salute the troops or whatever. Like, why is this happening now?” Jennings said.
“I have nothing but sympathy for [the contestants] because I did not have seventy-five good stories. I didn’t have three good stories,” he joked. “Every time I had to fly to L.A. to do more shows, I’d get a call from the contestant coordinator: ‘Hey, just in case you tape ten new shows, can you give us twenty new stories?’”
Ken Jennings Opens Up About Alex Trebek
Jennings replaced legendary Jeopardy host Alex Trebek. Trebek passed away in 2020 after a battle with cancer. Jennings revealed that he was one of the last people to speak with Trebek before his untimely death.
“I actually ended up talking to him what turned out to be the night before the day he passed away, about guest hosting for him. We actually didn’t know. We thought, ‘Oh, he’s going to get better, he’s gonna bounce back, he’ll be hosting again,” Jennings said.
“You know, he gave me the impression he always did over the years, which was that he did not want to be the center of attention on ‘Jeopardy!’” He was never announced as the star of ‘Jeopardy!’ — he was always the host of ‘Jeopardy!’ because he thought the game itself and the contestants should be the star.”