If he keeps his Jeopardy! winning streak up, then Jamie Ding could dethrone the legendary Ken Jennings in a couple of months’ time. And Jennings, who now hosts the quiz show, welcomes the challenge from this law student from Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
The Jeopardy! emcee addressed the possibility in an audience Q&A recently, after one audience member asked what he’d do if Ding surpassed his lead.
“If [Ding] were to, say, hypothetically, win game No. 75? That would be a record that nobody’s beaten for 20-odd years,” Jennings said, as seen in a clip posted to the game show’s X account. “I would be very excited, actually.”
Then Jennings turned playful, saying, “Are you imagining me just getting more and more pissed with every game? ‘If he wins, I’ll eat my hat!’”
As Jeopardy! buffs know, Jennings holds the records for most consecutive games won — after coming out on top in 74 straight games in 2004 — and highest regular-season play winnings — having taken home $2,520,700.
With 26 games won, Ding is in fifth place on the winning-streak leaderboard, behind Jennings, Amy Schneider (40 games), Matt Amodio (38 games), and James Holzhauer (32 games). Ding could win his 75th game as soon as June 25 if Jeopardy! airs a new regular-play episode every weekday in that timeframe.
Ken is here for the next generation of Jeopardy! super-champs
pic.twitter.com/RE94VH7GnR
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) April 18, 2026
In the audience Q&A, the same audience member asked if Ding could take Jennings’ hosting job.
“Yes, that’s what happens. If you hit game No. 75, a trap door opens beneath me and I disappear,” Jennings quipped.
But seriously, Jennings hopes to share the Alex Trebek Stage with whoever breaks his record, be they Ding or anyone else. “I’m, of course, perfectly impartial every game, but I actually believe that my record can be beaten, and I just hope I am hosting when it happens,” he said.
On Reddit, fans applauded Jennings’ sportsmanship and wit. “Ken Jennings is wickedly funny!” one user wrote.
“Ken has got to be one of the only celebrities that I like more every time I hear him speak,” said another.
Ding, who has won $732,000 on Jeopardy! in his 26 games so far, has already matched one of Jennings’ records on the game show. In his third game, Ding tied Jennings’ record of 45 correct responses in one episode, counting the Final Jeopardy! round, as J! Archive notes.
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