Jeopardy! Fans Are Furious After Wrong Answer Is Counted As Correct
A Jeopardy! contestant answered a question incorrectly, misnaming Ewan McGregor as Ewan Gregor, and fans are furious the game show rewarded the response as correct.
What’s in a name? That’s what Jeopardy! fans were upset about when the new champion, Melissa Klapper, claimed her place at the top after wrongly answering a question with “Ewan Gregor” instead of Ewan McGregor. The Scottish actor’s name was the push Klapper needed to defeat her two opponents, but as Fox News reports, the show’s fandom is up in arms about the production’s latest snafu.
Klapper quickly clapped back at the $200 question in the “Quite the Fishy Story” category that read, “The force of Lasse Hallström was strong to pull in this Scot to play a fisheries expert in ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.’” Quickly lighting up and answering with “Ewan Gregor,” Klapper was awarded the prize that would, in turn, lead her to victory over her fellow competitors, teacher and football coach Jake Garrett and marketing communications specialist Kelly Barry, putting an end to the latter’s short reign as Jeopardy! champ.
Known for his performances in this galaxy and those far beyond our own, Ewan McGregor is a household name who has appeared in films like Trainspotting and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and even nabbed his own Star Wars spin-off series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Of course, mistakes happen, and we can’t hold a high-stakes, split-second moment against Klapper, but Jeopardy!, as fans have argued, should have shut down her answer as it simply wasn’t correct.
This isn’t the only example in recent days when fans have taken to Twitter and Reddit to share their gripes about Jeopardy! The show has found itself in boiling water as of late with questions being reused and easy-to-spot mixups being narrowly avoided by production – and sometimes not noticed at all. To add to the drama, since the passing of beloved longtime host Alex Trebek in 2020, the show has struggled to secure a host who is both knowledgeable in the game and also a friendly face to fans.
Currently, Jeopardy! has been alternating between two different personalities: The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik and ex-Jeopardy! mega-champion and fan-favorite contestant Ken Jennings. While Bialik has faced much of fan’s disdain, Jennings is finally catching up with her as audiences recently called out the host for his opening monologue, which many have seen as condescending towards the contestants. Jennings’ sudden downswing in audience love is a shocker as the clamor for him to return to his hosting duties was so loud that he came back to the show in the middle of a planned hiatus that initially saw him taking off until September.
With their latest misstep, everyone backing Jeopardy! perhaps just needs to take a break and go on vacation to come back refreshed and ready to keep their eyes focused on the game. Since it premiered back in the ‘60s, Jeopardy! has been a staple of American game show programming, with its dedicated fanbase following it through multiple personnel changes. If the show wants to continue thriving, it will need to listen to its followers and strive to deliver the educational competition series that we know and love.
