KenJen's "Jeopardy!" Streak Continues

He'll take "Brainiac" for a million-plus, Alex.

Jeopardy! whiz Ken Jennings returned to the game show Monday night after a six-week hiatus to continue his unprecedented winning streak.

So far, he's triumphed in 39 consecutive games and banked $1,331,661, shattering all previous records for the syndicated game show.

Monday's win represented Jennings' lowest cash draw from the game to date?a relatively paltry $10,001 after he incorrectly wagered $21,599 in Final Jeopardy.

But it was enough for Jennings to take the victory, adding his winnings to what is "starting to be a lot of money," according to his mid-show comments.

KenJen, as fans have dubbed the unassuming software engineer from Salt Lake City, has become the stuff of legend for his trivia skills.

On top of the avid media attention Jennings has received, he's inspired several unofficial fan clubs and even has his own drinking game, courtesy of Slate.com. Jeopardrink!: The KenJen Edition operates on the basis that the worse Jennings does, the drunker you get; presumably, players are staying fairly sober.

Thanks to his Jeopardy! streak, the show's ratings have skyrocketed, climbing from an average viewership of 9.6 million in June to 15 million in July, per Nielsen Media Research.

According to TVgameshows.net, Jennings is in fifth place for most money earned on a game show, but the ranking doesn't reflect his playing skills.

"I'm mesmerized by his talent," TVgameshows.net webmaster Steve Beverly told USA Today. "I think it's safe to say that he is the top game show player of all time."

Through it all, Jennings, 30, has remained modest about his uncanny ability to continuously come up with the correct answers. (Framed in the form of a question, natch.)

"I think everyone has a great memory when it comes to the things they really love, and I happen to be curious about a whole lot of things," he explained on the official Jeopardy! message board.

"I can't really tell you why, but I've always been that way. When I meet someone with an unusual job or hobby, I'm always picking their brains for cool things I don't know about their areas of expertise. I also watch a lot of movies. It's amazing what you can learn from movies."

Jennings' Jeopardy! run would not have been possible under the show's now-defunct longtime rule that a contestant had to leave after five straight wins

But at the start of Jeopardy!'s 20th season last fall, the powers that be changed the rules, removing the restriction. Despite KenJen's monumental success, there are no plans to reinstate the rule, according to spokesman Jeff Ritter?if he keeps winning, he'll keep his victor's pedestal.

Jeopardy! will air two more weeks of original episodes, which began taping in August, before going on hiatus again for a special tournament.

In the meantime, KenJen isn't revealing anything about his future on the Jeopardy! set in accordance with the show's strict confidentiality policy .

Despite his winning streak, the game show guru says he knows he's not infallible.

"I keep thinking I'm going to get beat," he told USA Today.

"The law of averages means that one of these days, my number's up. Every day the contestants file in, and I sort of look at them like bullets in a gun. You know ? like which one of these people has my name on him or her? And for some weird fluke, it hasn't happened yet. But I think it will."