I'll Take Ken Jennings' World for $400

MAY. Ken continues to win but is forced to work at it. Longtime Jeopardy! watchers suspect that Ken's challengers are not so randomly chosen anymore. In the closest game in Ken's run, Ken barely edges Bob and Judy, a middle-aged couple from Milwaukee, Wis., who perform strongly in such categories as Bob and Judy's Children, Bob and Judy's Finances, The Little Things Bob and/or Judy Do That Really Annoy Bob and/or Judy, and Who Are These People in the Pictures in Bob and Judy's Photo Albums? Ken still wins. Ratings slide.

JUNE. After a week of special Jeopardy! challenge programs in which Ken on successive days defeats the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the European Parliament, the faculty of Beijing University (the first Jeopardy! game played entirely in Chinese) and the Council on Foreign Relations, Ken's amazing run comes to a close as security agents from Microsoft apprehend Ken in a parking lot and whisk him back to company headquarters in Redmond, Wash. "He was something a couple of the guys were messing around with and kind of forgot about," a company spokesman said. "He wasn't supposed to be out yet."