“It informs what I try to do with the money and with the platform,” Jennings said of his Mormon faith while on ‘Who’s With Me? with W. Kamau Bell’
Credit: Frazer Harrison/FilmMagic
NEED TO KNOW
- Ken Jennings opens up about his Mormon faith during his appearance on Who’s With Me? with W. Kamau Bell
- The Jeopardy! host said his background served as an “anchor” when he “suddenly” became rich and famous following his 74-game winning streak on the hit game show
- “It informs what I try to do with the money and with the platform,” Jennings said of his Mormon faith
Ken Jennings is getting candid about his Mormon faith.
During his appearance on Who’s With Me? with W. Kamau Bell, Jennings, 52, opened up about being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how his Mormon faith helped him stay grounded after finding fame and wealth as one of the highest-earning American game show contestants.
“I do feel like having that anchor of faith really was a very important part of keeping myself grounded when I was suddenly, by my original standards, rich and famous somehow on a game show,” the Jeopardy! host said. “Like, what do you? What’s the right way to be in that situation?”
Credit: Jeopardy Productions via Getty
Jennings first appeared as a contestant on Jeopardy! in June 2004. He went on to have an impressive 74-game run, earning $2,520,700 and setting the record for the longest consecutive winning streak.
“The thing about this kind of hearty pioneer Mormon upbringing is, you think it’s a little bit unseemly to be rich and famous, like, wow,” Jennings explained. “We’re a thrifty people. We shouldn’t have all that big, fancy Hollywood money.”
“So then the calculus becomes, well, how do you become a good person and how do you stay a good person and do the right things with the weird new thing you’ve been blessed with?” he continued. “I did and do think a lot about that, and I think it informs how I am publicly. It informs what I try to do with the money and with the platform.”
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Jennings said he is “very lucky” to have his Mormon faith to keep him grounded and that he is unsure about who he would be without it.
“I feel like as an adult, I’m the kind of person who really actually benefits from that,” he said. “Having that background really makes me think a lot about what the right thing is to do and say in a situation, and I’m far from always doing it, but like, I think [about] what an a–hole I’d be without that kind of upbringing, you know?”
The game show host shared that if his role as Jeopardy! host ever required him to compromise his convictions, he would remain true to his faith.
“When I say that I have convictions of right and wrong that run deeper than my desire to keep my extremely well-paid job, and if I ever had to choose, I would go with the convictions. That’s all from my church upbringing,” he said.
Credit: Christopher Willard/Disney via Getty
Elsewhere in his conversation with host W. Kamau Bell, Jennings addressed the perception that Mormonism is a “monolith.”
“It’s funny because it’s actually a very conservative-leaning institution. But the thing about Mormons, or Latter-day Saints, it’s very geographically dependent,” he explained. “If you’re imagining a Mormon in a small town, a rancher in Idaho, or a small town, like your stereotype of somebody with very conservative views might be right. That’s why there are a lot of conservative Mormons, because there are a lot of Mormons in the Mountain West. Those are red states.”
Jennings continued, “If you went to my Mormon congregation tomorrow in Seattle, it would look very different from a small Idaho town. It would be political, of course, but if you asked people how they voted, it would not be the same as that mythical small Idaho town.”
“So Mormons are not a monolith,” he added.
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