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Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings frustrated viewers with the game show’s latest headline-making moment.
On the Wednesday, July 3, episode of Jeopardy!, one contestant answered the $2,000 clue in the Double Jeopardy category “Waterfalls.”
“A Yosemite fall with a wispy ribbon of water that flutters in the air like a diaphanous cloth bears the name of this marital wear,” read Jennings, who was declared the permanent host of the show after Alex Trebek’s death in 2020.
When returning champion responded with “What is Bridalveil Falls?” Jennings — after hearing the ruling from the panel of Jeopardy! judges — determined that her answer was was incorrect. “No, I’m sorry,” he said, per Page Six. “It’s actually Bridalveil Fall, so we couldn’t take that. It is: ‘What is a Bridalveil?’”
Fans were outraged at what they viewed to be a nitpicky rule, and several took it out on the host.
“The category was “Waterfalls”! What’s wrong with “Bridal Veil Falls”?” one irate viewer wrote via X (formerly known as Twitter). “I screamed “You B*****d” at the screen.”
Another was “ready to individually fight the #Jeopardy judges for ruling ‘Bridalveil Falls’ wrong because of the extra “s” that was not germane to the clue.”
“Being pedantic to that degree is disgusting and negatively affects the game,” they added.
A third user expressed their “surprise … that this ruling was not retracted,” calling it “needlessly picayune” and a judgment that “only served to deflate the one contestant who knew the answer.”
Others, however, stood by the judges’ decision, with one calling it a “tough ruling against Kelly” but noting “the judges were right.”
“There’s a clear distinction between the one at Yosemite (singular) & the many others around the US (plural, including the smallest of the three parts of Niagara Falls),” the viewer pointed out.
“The clue specifically referred to Yosemite—and the waterfall at Yosemite is ‘Bridal Veil Fall,’” another person noted.
Jennings, for his part, knows a thing or two about being a contestant. In 2004, he became the Jeopardy! contestant with the longest winning streak in the game show’s history, winning 74 consecutive episodes. He also became the highest-winning player ever, with over $2.5 million in winnings.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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