‘Jeopardy!’ Host Ken Jennings Reveals He ‘Never Liked’ Contestant Interviews

"Jeopardy!" host Ken Jennings is opening up about a part of the award-winning game show that he never liked and it seems that many fans are in agreement!

The trivia guru, who currently holds the record with 74 games won in a row, admitted that he has "never liked" the contestant interviews that take place during the middle of the show, confessing that he finds them "cringey."

In a recent interview with the New Yorker, to promote his new book, “100 Places To See After You Die,” Ken Jennings revealed that he is not a fan of the contestant interviews that many fans have criticized in the past.

“I never liked that part,” the 49-year-old host told the publication, admitting that “It’s a little cringey.” He went on to say that it also comes at an awkward part in the show.

“And, even if the players tell an amazing anecdote perfectly, I mean, that’s just not the time for it, like when they interrupt a football game for Jennifer Lopez or to salute the troops or whatever,” he said. “Like, why is this happening now?”

He revealed that late host Alex Trebek also felt the same way about the interviews. “I don’t think Alex loved the interviews,” he said. “I think he was kind of ready to get back in the game.”

During his 74-game run in 2004, Ken admitted that he also struggled to come up with enough information about himself to share with fans watching around the world.

“And I have nothing but sympathy for [the contestants], because I did not have seventy-five good stories. I didn’t have three good stories,” he joked. “Every time I had to fly to LA to do more shows, I’d get a call from the contestant coordinator: Hey, just in case you tape ten new shows, can you give us twenty new stories?”

Now that he’s a host, Ken told the New Yorker that it was a “big change” for him. “Becoming a host—that’s really show biz. Now you can’t pretend anymore,” he said. When the interviewer told him, “You’re very good at it,” Ken replied, “Thank you. I appreciate that.”

“It’s a very hard job, and Alex made it look easy. So it’s kind of a no-win thing—the only other person we’ve seen do it looked incredibly confident and graceful for thirty-seven years, and we all loved him,” he went on to say.

When asked how it’s difficult, Ken said that the “speed” of the show is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome. “It’s hard to overstate how fast it moves and the mechanics of what the host has to do sixty-one times a show: read the clue flawlessly, call on the right contestant, adjudicate their response correctly,” he explained. “And then it all repeats.”

When the interviewer noted that he seems to make contestants feel comfortable, Ken replied, “I’m always thinking, How can I make the contestants feel—I don’t know about comfortable, but at least not panicky? Because I’ve been there, and I know it’s tough. I see the handshaking when they’re trying to wager.”

Ken also confirmed that the "Jeopardy!" writers are on strike during the WGA writer's strike that has captivated headlines over the past few weeks. "Yeah, they’re out now. Luckily, we always take a hiatus in May, so scripts were locked through the end of the season," he explained. "So now we’re just hoping against hope that the studios do the right thing and make them a fair deal."

"Because the writers are the engine that runs “Jeopardy!” More than the contestants, more than the host, it’s a show about the words. And it maybe has more words in every half hour than any other kind of show," he revealed. "Sixty-one of those very dense, tightly, carefully written, doubly researched clues. It’s almost like each one is a little haiku or a villanelle, engineered to try to get the player to exactly the right degree of difficulty and proximity."

Co-host Mayim Bialik was scheduled to host the final week of episodes for the season but opted not to in order to stand in solidarity with the striking writers. However, Ken filled in to host the final week to wrap up the season.