Jeopardy! viewers were outraged by host Ken Jennings’ “disgusting” decision during Wednesday night’s episode after he refused to accept an answer because it had been pluralized.
The 50-year-old host sparked controversy in the first game when he asked contestants Dana Keane, Isaac Hirsch and returning champion Kelly Proulx a question from the “Waterfalls” category.
For $2,000, Ken said, ‘A Yosemite waterfall with a faint ribbon of water billowing through the air like a sheer fabric is the name of this bridal garment.’
Kelly stepped in and asked, “What is Bridalveil Falls?”
Ken refused to accept her answer because she had added an “s” to the word “fall.”
Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings angered viewers with his “brutal” decision on Wednesday
The 50-year-old presenter sparked controversy in the first game when he asked the contestants a question from the ‘Waterfalls’ category.
When they took $2,000 out of his cash pot, he said, “No, I’m sorry. It’s actually Bridalveil Fall, so we couldn’t accept it. It’s, ‘What is Bridalveil? ‘”
Ken’s wild verdict meant that at the end of the first round, reigning champion Kelly was in last place with $3,600, while Dana was slightly ahead with $3,900 and Isaac in first place with $4,000.
Unfortunately for Kelly, he was unable to come back on top in the final Jeopardy! and walked away from the game with $7,000.
Isaac, meanwhile, won with $19,185 and will compete in Thursday’s episode.
Frustrated viewers flocked to social media to slam Ken and the show for their “pedantic” decision.
“I’m willing to fight the Jeopardy judges one-on-one for deciding that ‘Bridalveil Falls’ is wrong because of the extra ‘s’ that doesn’t correspond to the clue,” one viewer fumed on X. “Being pedantic to that degree is disgusting and negatively impacts the game.”
On Reddit, another added: ‘I normally give the judges a long and wide berth of respect, but fuck the judges for that decision.
“There’s nothing to suggest the ‘fall’ clue, so he got the required information right. That was really disgusting.”
Contestant Kelly had $2,000 taken away because she added an “s” to her answer.
Frustrated viewers flocked to social media to slam Ken and the show for their “pedantic” decision.
A third confused fan said: ‘If the clue only required you to say “Bridalveil” then why does it matter if Kelly said “fall” or “falls” afterwards? People call it “Bridalveil Falls” all the time, including the National Park Service!’
“Saying she was wrong was extremely pedantic, in my opinion,” criticized a fourth.
A fifth added: “Wow, that was a brutal decision on the last track.”
Another considered the decisions to be “extremely arbitrary.”
Ken’s divisive decision comes just two days after he agreed to a mispronounced answer that fans say “ruined the whole game.”
The controversial moment came when Ken presented the players with a clue from the anatomy category.
Reading the clue aloud, he said, ‘There are false and true vocal cords in this hollow tubular structure, also called a vocal box.’
Then a player came in and answered “what’s lar-nyx?”, which the host accepted, even though it wasn’t the correct pronunciation.