He did it.
Utah "Jeopardy! "champ Ken Jennings passed the $1 million mark Tuesday night, his 30th consecutive appearance on the quiz game show.
Jennings, a software engineer from Murray, pocketed $32,000, boosting his winnings total to $1,004,960.
He became only the second contestant in "Jeopardy!" history to win more than $1 million and the first to win it outside a Master's Tournament.
Jennings came close to not passing the million-dollar mark Tuesday after stumbling in Final Jeopardy. With $46,000 on hand, he wagered $14,000 on "Headlines of the Last 40 Years."
In his response to the "Jeopardy!" answer, "The first 2 New York Times headlines set in 96-point type were in these 2 years, 5 years apart," he incorrectly wrote, "What is 1996 and 2001?" (The correct answer was 1969, when man landed on the moon, and 1974, when President Richard Nixon resigned.)
Despite faltering in Final Jeopardy, Jennings still dominated Tuesday's show.
By the first commercial break, he had a $5,000 lead on the other two contestants, Max Corrick and Irene Lawrence. He cleared most of the board, working steadily down each topic and answering Daily Doubles with ease, wagering thousands of dollars at a time. Jennings boldly wagered $5,800 on the last Daily Double to catapult him to $40,000 a few minutes before the last question was answered.
A recent rule change has allowed Jennings to return to "Jeopardy!" as long as he keeps winning. In a month and a half, he has provided more than 1,000 correct responses, surpassed one record and is on the way to breaking two more.
He broke Tom Walsh's highest single run record of $184,900 in seven days. He has also twice tied with contestant Brian Weikle's highest one-day total of $52,000. As for the highest cumulative amount won, Jennings is $150,142 away from breaking Brad Rutter's Masters Tournament record of $1,155,102.
If his streak continues, Jennings has eight more shows in which to increase his winnings and break more records before the show ends its current season July 23.
As for personal information offered each night, host Alex Trebek asked Jennings about why he had such a great knowledge of alcohol for the category Potent Potables, despite the fact that, as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he doesn't drink. Jennings said his wife Mindy quizzed him using flash cards she made regarding cocktails and their ingredients.
"You owe her a big debt of gratitude," Trebek said. "I'll buy her a drink," Jennings answered.
"Obviously, she's not a teetotaler," Trebek joked.
"Actually, she is," said Jennings before going on to the next question.
Each night viewers learn something new about Jennings, from where he lives and what he does at work, to random facts like how he writes trivia questions for the National Academic Quiz Tournament and that he carries around a Totoro doll for good luck. A few nights Trebek has joked about not having anything left to discuss with him, he has been on the show so long.
E-mail: ltaylor@desnews.com