So I’ve been a little fascinated by Ken Jennings over the last couple of months. You know Ken. He’s the guy who rose to a little Charles Van Doren-ish pseudofame by winning a little over two and a half million dollars in an amazing winning streak on Jeopardy! over most of this year — a winning streak which, sadly, came to an end this week in his 75th appearance, when Ken was beaten on a question about H&R; Block in Final Jeopardy. (Yes, I watched. Taped it, actually. Yes, I was a little sad — and then even more amused the next night, when Nancy Zerg, the woman who beat KenJen on Tuesday, only managed a third-place finish the next night. Sic transit gloria.)
I had learned about KenJen’s inevitable loss when they taped it back in September — word leaked out on to the internet, courtesy of uberblogger Jason Kottke, who’s been the go-to guy for all your KenJen info. So this week, before the show aired, Jason posted a small audioclip of Ken’s final Jeopardy! appearance. And that’s where the trouble started.
Sony, the corporate megagiant who own Jeopardy!, contacted Jason and demanded that he take down the audioclip of KenJen’s loss. Jason did so, but posted a partial transcript of the clip for the curious. (Remember, this is still prior to the show’s Tuesday November 30 airdate.) Sony’s lawyers again contacted Jason and now demanded that he delete the transcript, which he did, fearing legal action. But the Washington Post must not have been deterred by the legal giant that is Sony, because they printed the same damn transcript in Lisa de Moraes’s TV column on November 29. Better: November 30 wasn’t even the first time that KenJen’s final game aired on television!
End result: for being excited about a Jeopardy superstar and directing folks to Ken’s rise and fall on Tuesday night (presumably, Sony’s desired result: increased ratings and attention paid to Jeopardy!), Jason is threatened with legal action that might dissuade him from continuing his personal blog in the future. Yup, sounds like all is right with the world. Hooray.
