The Difference Between Ken and Dave

This week, Jeopardy! has been showing what can be billed as "Ken Jennings' Greatest Hits", which is basically reruns of the all-time winner (in number of consecutive games, at least) in his most memorable contests. Watching some of the episodes (I have to admit that I'm not home in time from work every night to watch), it's evident as to why Jennings was a great champion; from the first show he was on, he exuded confidence in his ability to hit the buzzer as well as answer the question. He also was a bit cocky, but tempered that with a humility that always made it look like he could be beaten at any time, which always hightened the tension. But what made him so likable -- and by extension, eminently watchable -- was that he never took any of what he was doing at all seriously. Indeed, in the episode aired Tuesday, which was around the midpoint of his 74-game winning streak, he was bantering with Alex Trebek and making funny editorial comments about the "answers" for which he provided questions. Of course, he was on his way to winning a single-game record amount of money at the time (I think it was $72,000), so maybe he had a reason to be so loose.

Enter David Madden. He ended the current season on a budding Jennings-esque streak, winning 14 straight games, and is set to be the champion when Jeopardy! returns later this month. But there's a little bit of a problem: he's got no personality. Seriously.

Madden reminds me of a friend I had in college, a guy that I still see every few years. He's a nice guy, but a little quiet. He's kind of in his own head all the time, which manifests itself as a kind of detatched look and "not quite in this society" manner about him. In essence, he's an egghead. Madden's an egghead to the n-th degree, and it looks like he has no interest in engaging Alex, the other contestants, or the rest of the audience. He just wants to answer the questions and win the next game.

Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way, as this article shows. Not only are ratings down from when Ken was streaking to his record, but J! fans are starting to rebel against Madden, to the point where they're rooting against him.

I don't blame them. When I was watching the last weeks of the show, I constantly rooted against Madden, whereas I didn't root against Ken until well into his streak (mainly because the routine had gotten old). It's the downside to J!'s new "keep going 'til you lose" rule: for every fun champ like Jennings, there's an equal chance that a nerdy dud like Madden will clog our screens for weeks.

Well, let's hope that a summer off will loosen Madden up a little (maybe he parlayed his fame into a girlfriend or something).