Jeopardy Fans Argue The Show Is Getting Too Easy

However, many fans thought the Final Jeopardy clue for the December 27 episode wasn’t it. It read, “After “Black Monday” in 1987, sculptor Arturo Di Modica put a statue of one of these in Manhattan to symbolize strength & power”. And folks thought the answer (“a bull”) was way too easy.

They wasted no time calling out the show and its host via YouTube and social media.

What is the context behind this Final Jeopardy question? Arturo Di Modica is a legendary Italian sculptor, and after he arrived in New York in 1970, he kicked off a very successful career, with some fans (including English sculptor Henry Moore) dubbing him the next Michelangelo.

Feeling he owed a debt to the country that made him famous, and wanting to give Wall Street a gift after Black Monday, Di Modica spent $350,000 of his own money creating his famous Charging Bull sculpture.

However, nothing about the installation of this sculpture went according to plan.

That’s because nobody actually commissioned Di Modica to create this sculpture, so he and his friends snuck out in the predawn hours on December 15, 1989, to install the sculpture on Wall Street.

Unfortunately, he discovered a Christmas tree was already where he planned to put the sculpture, so he left Charging Bull under the tree as a gift.

Not everyone appreciated the gift, though: the New York Stock Exchange removed it by lunch that day, but the public had already fallen in love with the statue, and due to popular demand, it was later installed at Bowling Green.

Long story not very short, this is one of the most famous statues in the history of the world, and most certainly in the history of America.

Therefore, many Jeopardy! fans thought the clue referencing the statue was one of the easiest ones in the episode.

It’s the kind of question that might have been more fitting for a $100 clue, but it ended up inexplicably serving as the Final Jeopardy clue.

All three contestants got the answer correct, which arguably serves as evidence that the question is too easy.

Jeopardy! fans soon took to social media to express their displeasure. Some fans disdainfully claimed that this would have been better as a Final Jeopardy question for a middle school version of the show, and other fans made jokes (some more vulgar than others) incorporating the “bull” answer.

Other fans worried that this disappointing Final Jeopardy question was a sign that the show itself had become too easy.

If that’s the case, there is a chance that Jeopardy! producers may tweak the show’s questions due to fan outcry.

Recently, controversial host Mayim Bialik revealed that she had been fired from her hosting duties. While some speculated this was because she had angered producers by previously stepping back from hosting in solidarity with the WGA strike, others believe she was fired simply because so many fans disliked her hosting style. 

At any rate, Jeopardy! may need to make changes to the quality and difficulty of questions before it finds itself the answer to our own Final Jeopardy clue: “This venerable quiz show has been spiraling in quality ever since the death of popular host Alex Trebek.”