When interviewing Ken Jennings about Celebrity Jeopardy!, is it appropriate to immediately ask for his take on those iconic Saturday Night Live parodies? The answer is . . . absolutely. Oops, sorry, that’s incorrect: What is absolutely?
“I think they were the high-water for SNL,” he says of the sketches featuring Will Ferrell as exasperated host Alex Trebek. “But they did give the impression that the show is a dumbed-down, watered down version of Jeopardy! That’s a disservice to the celebrities because you do have to know tough stuff.”
And the stars competing on Celebrity Jeopardy! All Stars, which kicks off March 13 with “Quarterfinal #1” on ABC, are especially bright. Stand-out players include Ray Romano, Mira Sorvino, Macauley Culkin, Rachel Dratch and Patton Oswalt. They will appear with former champs W. Kamau Bell, Lisa Ann Walter and Ike Barinholtz. (The Studio actor actually went on to win a game on the vaunted Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions in 2024.)
Jennings with celebrity contestant Rachel Dratch
Photo Credit: ABC
And though Jennings himself won a record 74 consecutive matches back in 2004 — and took over as host of the legendary game show in 2022 (following Trebek’s death in 2020) — he admits this batch of contestants intimidated him. “When Cynthia Nixon was playing,” he says, “I was thinking, Why is she here? Does she know she’s playing our little game?” He’s quick to add that the vibe was loose: “Celebrity Jeopardy! is actually less anxious to host than regular Jeopardy! because you don’t have to try to generate fun.”
That said, Jennings says whittling down his My Seven Shows list was “very stressful.” Because of his loyalty to Jeopardy!, he didn’t feel comfortable choosing any of his beloved childhood-era game shows. (Sorry, The Match Game and Hollywood Squares!) He also “ixnayed” favorites like Star Trek and The Simpsons. But, unsurprisingly, his picks for the Television Academy are all champions.
The Twilight Zone (1959-64, CBS)
The Twilight Zone’s classic episode, “Eye of the Beholder”
Photo Credit: CBS/Paramount
The hit rate with this show is just so high. I watched some of the episodes with my kids when they were growing up, and they still work. I remember my son’s jaw just hitting the floor when it turns out that — well, to spoil the ending of “Eye of the Beholder” [from Season 2] — the doctors are the ugly ones and the patients are beautiful. I had never seen his eyes water. So I love that it still holds up.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988-96, Comedy Central; The Sci-Fi Channel, 1996-99)
Twin Peaks was so glossy and finished that it looked like a Douglas Sirk movie; Mystery Science Theater 3000 looked like what it was: Midwestern community theater guys [Joel Hodgson and Jim Mallory] making a puppet show. But their genuine affection for bad movies and the sheer density of the jokes made us laugh hard — in fact, nothing made us laugh harder as teens than people riffing on bad movies. And I think, for better or for worse, it rewired the culture. You know, everybody became snarkier about kitsch. And these guys were the masters of it. I just donated to their Kickstarter, by the way.
Twin Peaks (1990-91, ABC; 2017, Showtime)
I took my VHS tape and recorded every episode and watched over and over for clues. So part of the appeal was the mystery, and part of it was being a Pacific Northwesterner and having that setting. Even though the vast majority of that show was shot on a soundstage somewhere, the pilot is suffused with a dreariness — like the bellows of the fog horn and the evergreen trees blowing in the wind. And really, everything we say about the prestige TV era starts with Twin Peaks. [Creator] David Lynch was somebody with a vision who made a TV show that didn’t look like any other TV show. And this ten years before The Sopranos!
The Wire (2002-08, HBO)
I can’t leave this off. Obviously, everybody says, “Oh, it’s such a big canvas, I’ve never seen a show about a city.” That’s all true. For me, I think a lot of it is the performances. You have future stars like Idris Elba and Michael B Jordan, of course. And every supporting role is some amazing actor, often just a local Baltimore person — they all have this incredible wealth of talent and authenticity. America is full of these incredible performers, but we don’t see them because of how TV is structured.
Mad Men (2007-15, AMC)
I’m a sucker for a show that doesn’t tell you what to think. Like, you can get through an amazing scene in Mad Men and realize to yourself, “Am I supposed to like what she said? Am I supposed to hate him?” A lot was left up to the viewer — and I think that kind of nuance is dying in TV. Jon Hamm as Don Draper is also the most charming screen presence of his TV generation. And he goes to the movies during the day all the time! I don’t have any of Don Draper’s other vices, but I would go to the movies all day too if I could.
Better Call Saul (2014-22, AMC)
I’m going to say Better Call Saul over Breaking Bad. This is a little more interesting because Saul (Bob Odenkirk) has all the moral quagmires of Walter White in Breaking Bad, but he’s in the system. It’s not just the drug lord; you’re seeing that the institutions are just as problematic. I also love those Vince Gilligan shows because they make you do a little work. You’re watching Mike [Jonathan Banks] drive around, doing a series of errands, and you’re unclear where he is at each step or what he’s doing — and then it all comes together. That really keeps my attention because I love watching somebody work competently and trying to figure out what’s the plan. Like: “What is Saul up to here? What is Mike even thinking? What’s the plan?” Now, it’s all in my head — no other show has really ever tried that in the same way.
Atlanta (2016-22, FX)
Atlanta has that David Lynch thing in that you can see there’s a genius at work. In this case, it was [creator and star] Donald Glover, though I’m sure there was an amazing writers’ room, too. The first season is actually about Atlanta and hip-hop, which is great. But then at the end, it becomes an anthology show where anything can happen. And that’s what I want on TV — I want to be surprised. Even at the end, Atlanta was still on all cylinders and surprising me in every episode. It was like getting 20 shows in one. It did not feel like a product; it felt like a passion.
This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.