‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Reveals What’s on Ken Jennings’ Secret Card

Brittany Sims March 10, 2026, 2:48 pm

We’ll take something we’ve never seen before for $600, Ken. A Jeopardy! contestant revealed host Ken Jennings‘ secret card and what was on it ahead of his episode.

As the host of one of the most popular game shows of all-time, Ken Jennings has many eyes and ears on him. He often gets contestants with names that might be hard to pronounce. Fans wondered if he practices them beforehand or has any help with them.

Contestant Tim Swankey, who is set to play on the March 10 episode against James Denison and Sapan Vora, answered the question for the fan. A Reddit user asked, “Does Ken practice pronouncing names that aren’t considered ‘normal?'”

Swankey wrote, “Here’s the card Ken had for me. It’s got the phonetic representation of my last name and my town’s name. The ‘B’ written in the corner means that I’m at the middle podium.”

The card had Swankey’s name on it, and above it, it said “Swonkey” in parentheses, telling the host that’s how he pronounced it. He is from Marcellus, New York, which was pronounced “Marsellus.”

It also had his job and five anecdotes on the card. Jennings appeared to circle which one he wanted to talk about. He then signed the card for Swankey.

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One fan asked Swankey if he knew which anecdote Jennings was going to talk about. He told a Reddit user, “Yes, I did. Sabrina from the Jeopardy staff goes over anecdotes with the contestants, and we decided that the bobsled/luge story was brief enough and interesting.”

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Contestant Ian Morrison shared his card with the thread as well, saying he was surprised Jennings didn’t need it for his first name.

Jordan Stefanski, who played on April 30, 2025, shared, “There is usually some trial and error involved. My name, I don’t think, is particularly complicated. But during my episode, different parts needed to be reshot because first Sarah botched my name and occupation in the opening (and I made a visible WTF face during that – the audience laughed). Then during the interview, Ken mispronounced my last name, had to go back to one, got my name right, and then biffed on my hometown 😂. By the end, I had joked, ‘My God, it’s like you guys don’t even want me here 😂.'”

Other contestants said they were asked to send in a voice note the day before their episode.

“Yes, he also gets the clues the day before to read through, and I believe he can annotate on the clue papers beforehand. And the other comments talk about the contestant names so there’s that,” one last fan said.

Did you know about Ken Jennings’ special card? Let us know in the comments.