She’s Cooked: Former ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant recalls brief battle with Ken Jennings

Kirk Baird

Monday, Nov. 22, 2004 | 8:25 a.m.

I've known Ellen Cook for nearly a decade. She's the wife of one of my best friends from college, Chuck Pollet. Both Ellen and Chuck are trivia experts. They spend most Friday nights playing NTN Trivia, an interactive game played nationwide in restaurants and bars, at one of their favorite local haunts.

A few years ago they even auditioned for a couples-only version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" when the show was in Las Vegas to find contestants.

Chuck and Ellen passed the various tests and were told they might end up on the show. They even asked me to serve as one of their "lifelines" dictionary and Internet at the ready should they be on the show. I took it as an honor, akin to being Best Man.

But a missed phone call and message from the show's producers to Chuck's work phone kept them from ever being on the show and having a shot at a million bucks. So when I learned that "Jeopardy!" was auditioning contestants this year in Las Vegas, in the ballroom of the Westin Casuarina, I was hoping they'd at least try out.

They did, and both passed the audition as potential contestants for the show. The next Monday after her audition Ellen got a call from a "Jeopardy!" contestant coordinator who asked her if she would be a contestant on a show to tape March 2. She would have to provide her own transportation and lodging to Los Angeles, but she would get a free meal out of it and, more importantly, at the very least $1,000.

How could she turn them down?

The night before she left for L.A. to appear on the show, Chuck joked with me on the phone that Ellen would do well unless she faced some sort of ringer.

I didn't realize he was being prophetic.

The morning of the show's taping, Ellen met the other contestants in a parking garage.

"Jeopardy!" tapes five shows a day a week's worth of episodes and there were 11 contestants waiting, including an alternate.

But it was one contestant in particular, a software engineer from Utah, who caught her attention.

"One guy was standing by himself," she said. "Everyone talked about him. He was the reigning champ."

His name: Ken Jennings.

For 19 seasons "Jeopardy!" had a rule that a contestant could only win five consecutive games before he or she was forced off the show, only to perhaps return later for a Tournament of Champions competition.

But last fall the quiz show changed its rule to allow champions to continue until they lose.

Unconfirmed information leaked by TV Week magazine has Jennings losing his 76th show (which may air Dec. 1) after amassing nearly $2.5 million and beating 150 contestants.

"Jeopardy!" producers refuse to comment on the rumor.

At that point Jennings had won eight consecutive games.

"He just looked like a normal dude," she said. "He didn't look imposing.

"I thought I could take him."

The contestants were taken to the makeup room, where they also were briefed on the game. Jennings, however, was kept separate from the group by the show's contestant coordinators.

Ellen reasoned Jennings already knew the information after eight appearances on "Jeopardy!" and didn't need to sit through the explanations of the show's rules and procedures again.

After the briefing the group was herded into a section of the studio audience, where two contestants were chosen at random for each game. Ellen wasn't picked, which gave her the chance to observe the champion at work.

"All I knew going in was that he was an eight-day champ," she said. "I didn't know how he played."

She was quickly impressed.

"He was whaling on people," Ellen said. "The first two people came off (the stage) crushed, like the wind was taken out of their sails. I remember thinking, 'Thank God that's not me.' "

The next two contestants were "crucified" by Jennings, she said. Then two more contestants were ousted by the reigning champ.

One contestant, resigned to her fate, wrote on her Final Jeopardy question: "What (is the) same as Ken's answer."

As the quiz show stopped filming for a lunch break, six members of Ellen's group had been eliminated. During lunch Ellen said the remaining contestants joked with Jennings about poisoning his lunch: " 'Better watch that sandwich, Ken.' Things like that."

The champ took it all with good humor, though.

"He was very humble about the whole thing," she said.

After lunch Ellen watched two more players get taken out by Jennings. Still, she remained optimistic of her chances. She knew about three-fourths of all the answers so far, including all of the Final Jeopardies.

Prior to going onstage Ellen was pulled aside by a contestant coordinator to share a couple of personal stories about her life for host Alex Trebek to ask about during the taping.

Ellen had two stories: one about her hermaphrodite cat, Weezer (named for the band), the other about a horror film she wrote, "Sliced," which was later produced.

"I was so cocky I said, 'I'll talk about the cat story tomorrow after I win.' The girl gave me a look, like 'Good luck with that.' "

Aside from Jennings, Ellen's other competition was Bret Bradigan, publisher of the Ojai Valley News in California.

Despite the cameras and pressure of being on the show, she remained fairly calm.

"I wasn't unusually nervous being in front of the cameras. It's so surreal," Ellen said. "It's not like when Cindy Brady goes on a show and freezes in front of the camera. It's very strange, like people watching you in your living room playing a game."

Once the game started, Jennings buzzed in correctly on 13 of the first 15 answers.

"But I knew almost every one of them," Ellen said. "I just couldn't get in to beat Ken."

By the game's midpoint, when players are introduced, Jennings had $6,200, Brett a negative $1,200 and Ellen zero.

"I was plotting my strategy on him," she said. "I can beat this guy. How can I be quicker ringing in?"

Ellen soon had her chance with the question: "The three basic sugar types are granulated, brown and this one named for a profession?"

Ellen knew the answer -- "what is confectioners?" -- and beat Jennings to the ring-in.

Just as she hit the button, though, a loose electrical plate on the back of her podium fell off and landed on her shin, leaving a bruise that would last for days.

The show stopped taping while they repaired Ellen's podium, and then retaped her buzzing in and answering the question correctly.

Still, Ellen considered the ordeal indicative of the way the show was going.

"I just thought, 'That's par for the course,' " she said. "It just wasn't my day."

She did manage to correctly answer seven more questions -- never missing one -- and went into Final Jeopardy with $7,000. Still, she was behind Bradigan with $9,800 and Jennings with $27,000.

For Final Jeopardy, the category was "16th Century."

Ellen wagered $2,800.

Before Ellen left for L.A. she promised Chuck if she didn't know the answer, instead of guessing at the correct response, she would write a gag answer instead. She had settled on quoting a line from the 1985 teen comedy "Better Off Dead," starring John Cusack.

Ellen made good on her promise.

The Final Jeopardy clue was, "In 1582 the man Ugo Buoncompagni proclaimed this solar dating system still used today."

The correct answer: "What is the Gregorian calendar?"

Ellen wrote: "What is I want my $2!" which dropped her total to $4,200.

Trebek was befuddled by her answer.

"Is that all you think you're going to get?" he asked her. "Second place gets $2,000 and third place $1,000."

Bradigan and Jennings, however, answered correctly. Brett finished up with $14,000, while Jennings more than doubled that amount with $30,000. Jennings' victory brought his 13-day total to $440,158.

Afterward, while walking through the parking garage with Jennings and his wife, the "Jeopardy!" champ brought up Ellen's answer: "Hey, 'Better Off Dead,' right?"

At that point Ellen could only smile.

"Yeah," she told him.

Several months after her episode aired on June 18, Ellen received a $1,000 check from the show, long after the bruises to her shin and ego had disappeared.

Jennings, of course, has gone on to win many more games. Before taking a two-week break for the show's 2004 College Championship, Jennings had won 70 games for a total of $2,355,001. Both are game show records.

No matter when his streak ends, though, his run has been amazing.

Even in March, long before Jennings' first "Jeopardy!" episode aired, before he appeared on late-night talk shows, and before he became the focal point of conversations all over the United States and beyond, Ellen knew the champion was a special player.

"I didn't see him going that long, but I knew he'd be going on for a while," she said. "He and his wife are nice people. More power to them."

Ellen said she also takes solace knowing she lost to the "Jeopardy Juggernaut," as she began calling Jennings the day after being on the show.

"At least I can say I lost to the all-time champ," she said. "Me and 149 other people."

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