Jeopardy’s IBM Challenge Gets Very One-Sided

Final battle between man and machine goes down Wednesday

(SPOILER WARNING: Don't read this if you don't want to know who or what won on "Jeopardy" Tuesday.)

Uh-oh, humans.

The first round of Jeopardy's "IBM Challenge" — pitting all-time best human players Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter against an IBM trivia machine — ended poorly for the flesh-and- blood competitors Tuesday. But humanity still has one more night to make a last stand.

Though Watson ended up tied with Rutter at $5,000 each at the end of Monday's episode, it ran away with a total of $35,734 on Tuesday, double the total for Jennings and Rutter combined. (And it didn't even get the Final Jeopardy answer right.)

The biggest winner? What is, "Jeopardy."

It scored its highest ratings in four years for Monday night's episode. The 8.7 household rating made it the most-watched show on television, behind only CBS's “Two and a Half Men, which had a 9.6, according to CBS Television Distribution.

Also doing well? IBM, which is getting vast publicity for the Watson technology. The company says it may also be applicable to real life, perhaps in diagnosing illnesses.

"Jeopardy" and IBM did not respond to queries by TheWrap Tuesday about whether the company is paying "Jeopardy" for the in-show product placement.

Monday and Tuesday's episode featured one game split in two, leaving time for lots of background about Watson and how it works.

The second and final full game will be played Wednesday, if SkyNet decides it's okay.

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