Ken Jennings Facing Scrutiny On ‘Jeopardy!’

Ken Jennings Youtube

Jeopardy! fans are mostly split on many of the intricacies of the show’s rules. Regarding pronunciation, penmanship, wording of answers, and more, some people are sticklers for perfection, and others don’t mind mistakes in pronunciation or spelling. However, most fans all agree on one thing. There should be consistency.

The game show’s fans got mad again this week when those inconsistencies crept up again. Here is what happened and why fans are frustrated with the game show.

Jeopardy! Fans Want Consistent Rulings

Jeopardy! does not seem to have consistent rules on things like pronunciation of words and spelling on the shows. There have been some mentions by producers that they will usually give the right answer if a player is saying it but is a little off on the pronunciation or penmanship when writing it.

Jeopardy! | YouTube
Jeopardy! | YouTube

The problem is that the show has also counted off for players in other cases for the same reasons. This week, a game had fans up in arms about the inconsistency of these rules. On Wednesday, two-day champion Joey DeSena, a development engineer from Raleigh, North Carolina, faced Lois Dioro, a realtor from West Haven, Connecticut, and Evan Dorey, a data analytics director from Toronto, Ontario.

On Doble Jeopardy!, the clue read, “You’ll Learn to Adapt” category. It read, “From 2013 to 2017, Tom Mison kept his head during some rough situations as this TV character in ‘Sleepy Hollow.’” Of course, the answer is “Who is Ichabod Crane.”

Joey buzzed in: “Who is Ichapod Crane?” Ken Jennings said they couldn’t accept that answer, and Evan said, “Ichabod Crane.” This cost DeSena $400, and he ended up losing the game, seeing his streak come to an end.

Ken Jennings Facing Some Scrutiny On Jeopardy!

There was an even bigger problem in Final Jeopardy! The clue read: “It’s the geographic word in the title of a Robert Burns poem about “the mountains …covered with snow…the straths & green valleys below.”

Jeopardy: Ken Jennings
Jeopardy: Ken Jennings

Evan was the only one who got it right – but he really didn’t if Ken Jennings was being fair to Joey. The answer read: “What is Highlands?” Evan wrote, “What is Highland?” Joey was counted off for pronouncing Ichabod with a “P” instead of a “B” but Evan was counted right even thought he left out the letter “S” from his answer.

Fans were not happy and let Joey know they thought it wasn’t fair (via Reddit):

  • “The judging seems to be rather arbitrary and capricious to me. Can’t accept ‘ichapod,’ but can accept ‘highland,’”
  • “I think Ken should have asked you to repeat it to see how you said it. It wasn’t clear to me live that it was “P” instead of “B.””
  • “Joey’s voice catching on ‘Ichabod’ and not getting credit for it is crazy”

What are your thoughts on Jeopardy! and the inconsistency on the rulings? Let us know in the comments below.

Shawn Lealos
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