  Ken Jennings |
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Brad Rutter was spitting out questions faster than a jilted Tory as he roared past Ken Jennings last night to become the Ultimate Jeopardy Champion.
Nicknamed "The Buzzsaw" by host Alex Trebek, the 27-year-old Pennsylvania native roared to victory last night, bringing his three-day tournament total to $62,000 (all figures US). That was nearly double Jennings' $34,599 and third-place finisher Jerome Vered's $20,600.
Rutter won all three games of the tournament, and since his first victory in 2000 has never lost a single game of Jeopardy!
Rutter's win earned him the tournament's $2-million grand prize, with Jennings pocketing $500,000 and Vered $250,000.
Asked by Trebek early in the game if he felt his reputation was on the line, Jennings, 31, insisted he was feeling no pressure. "I've done okay for myself so far on Jeopardy," he downplayed.
Clearly, though, Rutter had the hotter hand, eliminating tough contestants as recently as last week. Jennings hadn't played since his unprecedented 75-game run -- during which he racked up $2,522,700 in winnings -- came to an end last November.
That was then. By the first break last night, the score was already $6,000 Rutter, $800 Jennings, zero Vered.
You could see Jennings' frustration as Rutter constantly beat him to the buzzer. Jennings was never able to overcome that split-second reflex advantage.
Rutter was also the only one to get this tricky Final Jeopardy answer right (the category: 20th Century Americans): "These names of two original Mercury astronauts, who orbited the Earth in May 1962 and May 1963, are also occupations."
The correct question: "Who are (Scott) Carpenter and (Gordon) Cooper." With the win already in the bag, Rutter risked nothing.
Jennings knew his guess of "Cooper and Shepherd" was wrong. (Although a good guess. Mercury astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American in space, blasted off in 1961 but did not orbit the Earth.)
Knowing he was beaten, Jennings scribbled "Go Brad" on his screen.
Rutter, a previous Jeopardy! Million Dollar Masters champ, now stands as TV's all-time game-show money winner (network or syndication), with a total of $3,270,102. Jennings drops to second overall with a combined total of $3,022,700.
Don't feel too sorry for the Utah brainiac. Besides his new trivia board game, Can You Beat Ken?, and his commercial endorsements with Cingular and Allstate, Jennings just signed a deal for his own TV game show with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire creator Michael Davies as executive producer. The still-untitled show, which could debut as early as the fall, will probably find Jennings taking on all challengers, similar to Win Ben Stein's Money.
Will Rutter take him on again there? Stay tuned.
