‘Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time’: Ken Jennings Reacts to Being Crowned Champion

Ken Jennings is taking his title as Jeopardy!‘s greatest of all-time seriously. After being crowned winner of the special tournament, Jennings took to Twitter to share a photo of himself standing in front of a piece of art with the word “GOAT” in all capital letters. He looked into the camera and captioned the photo, “I vow to be the People’s Champ.”

After spending much of the tournament taking jabs at his fellow opponents James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter, Jennings, 45, stayed humble following his victory Tuesday night.

“I know this tournament was supposed to settle the Jeopardy ‘Greatest of All Time’ question forever, but let’s be honest: I got some breaks,” he continued in the tweet thread.

“There’s a lot of luck in a game of Jeopardy: the categories, who finds the Daily Doubles, who misses a fluky DD or Final…

“If we ran this tournament back a dozen times, you’d probably see a different winner each time. Brad and James are just that good,” he continued, adding that they most definitely “will NOT be running this tournament back a dozen times.”

Jennings mentioned his competitors by their Twitter handles, speaking to each individually. “[Holzhauer] is a player so dominant that, when he took on the strongest players ever in his sport, they both had to adopt his exact style of play just to contain him. THAT’s a once-in-a-generation talent. [Rutter] got some tough breaks in this tourney, but real Jeopardy-heads know him as the guy who beat me in three straight tournament finals. For over a decade, he’s really had the only credible claim as the Jeopardy GOAT.”

He continued, calling “buzzing against both of them at once” a “Jeopardy nightmare, but also he best time I’ve ever had on TV. They’re just great and should I ever be unable to fulfill my duties, I deputize them as co-GOATs.

With one final call-off, Jennings referenced longtime host Alex Trebek‘s health. “And may Alex Trebek host for a thousand years. Good night!” he concluded.

Jennings was the first to win three games during the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament, earning him a cash prize of $1 million and the distinguished title as the quiz show’s best competitive player to ever take its stage.

Fans took to Twitter to give their thoughts on the new champion.

“Ken Jennings played lights-out for that whole tournament, well-deserved victory,” wrote one user, adding that they hoped the three players “will make more appearances in the future, very entertaining competitors.”

Another remarked at Jennings’ “true photographic memory,” calling it “unfair to normal people.”

The four-night event turned out to be a huge ratings success for ABC. Last Thursday’s broadcast of Night 3 even beat out the other three broadcast networks numbers combined.

Photo credit: ABC/Eric McCandless