September 2020, he signed on as a consulting producer of Jeopardy!, a job that included an on-air role reading categories. He held this role until the start of the show's thirty-ninth season. Following Alex Trebek's death on November 8, 2020, Jennings hosted Jeopardy! as the first of a series of guest hosts. His episodes aired from January 11, 2021, to February 19, 2021. Following Mike Richards' exit early in the 2021–22 season, Jennings and Mayim Bialik were both named hosts; Jennings’ hosting duties were initially exclusive to the daily syndicated series until he was announced as host of Jeopardy! Masters in primetime in 2023. Jennings has split hosting duties in a permanent capacity alongside Bialik since the 39th season of the series. Early life Jennings was born on May 23, 1974, in Edmonds, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. His father was a lawyer employed internationally, and Jennings spent 15 years growing up in South Korea and Singapore where his father worked. Upon returning to the United States, Jennings attended the University of Washington. Following two years as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he was assigned to serve in Madrid, Spain, he transferred to Brigham Young University in 1996. One of his roommates at BYU was author Brandon Sanderson. He also played on the school's quizbowl team, at one point serving as captain, and graduated in 2000 with a double major in English and computer science. Streak on Jeopardy! Before 2003, Jeopardy! contestants were limited to five consecutive wins. At the beginning of the show's 20th season (in 2003), the rules were changed to allow contestants to remain on the show as long as they continued to win. After this rule change, and until Jennings' run, the record winning streak was set by Tom Walsh, who won $186,900 in eight games in January 2004. Jennings' run began during Jeopardy! 20th season with the episode aired on June 2, 2004, in which he unseated two-time returning champion Jerry Harvey, and continued into season 21. In that first episode, Jennings' entire winning streak nearly ended before it even began. The Final Jeopardy answer was, "She's the first female track & field athlete to win medals in five different events at a single Olympics." Jennings responded with "Who is Jones?" using only the last name of Marion Jones (who was not stripped of her medals until