‘Jeopardy!’ fans outraged after contestant receives questionable ruling: ‘Ken Jennings blows it again’
Jennings took over ‘Jeopardy!’ hosting duties after Alex Trebek died in 2020 from pancreatic cancer
Erin Buker recently earned the second-lowest winnings of any contestant in the history of “Jeopardy!,” something she called an “out-of-body experience.”
One “Jeopardy!” answer sparked a heated debate between game show fans.
During a recent episode of the beloved game show, a ruling had viewers riled up over the mispronunciation of an answer.
Mark Fitzpatrick, a five-day “Jeopardy!” champion, chose the $800 clue from the category, “Just Doin’ My Job.”
“Jeopardy!” fans were quick to react to Ken Jennings’ questionable ruling of a challenging prompt. (Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images)
The prompt read, “Knows the proper use of propofol; can count to 16 (letters in the job); can tell people to count backward from 100.”
While “Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings was looking for the correct answer to, “anesthesiologist,” contestant Eamonn Campbell appeared to flub the pronunciation of the word.
“Anateesiologist?” Campbell answered.
Although Jennings gave the contestant another chance, he continued to stumble on the correct pronunciation of the word.
“Anathesiologist?” he mispronounced again.
While “Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings was looking for the correct answer to, “anesthesiologist,” contestant Eamonn Campbell appeared to flub the pronunciation of the word. (Disney/Eric McCandless)
Another “Jeopardy!” contestant, Dot White, buzzed in with the correct pronunciation of the word and answered, “”What is an anesthesiologist?”. Jennings then accepted the correct answer.
Fans were quick to react to the questionable ruling of the challenging prompt.
“Jeopardy and ken Jennings blows it again … screwing Eamonn out of his answer ‘anesthesiologist’ ….unbelievable!!” one comment read.
Another fan wrote, “Are you frikin kidding me?!!! Eamonn Campbell doesn’t have a lisp… He just can’t seem to pronounce ‘anesthesiologist.’ Or maybe he just doesn’t know the word…”
Other viewers disagreed with the outraged fans and argued pronunciation is very important.
Fans were previously upset at another one of Ken Jennings’ rulings, complaining that he made a “brutal call.” (Raymond Liu/ABC via Getty Images)
“Not really. You could definitely discern his lack of the 1st ‘s’ in his pronunciation. He said ‘ana-theeze-iologist’ as opposed to ‘ana-steeze-iologist.’ Twice! @KenJennings def made the right call.”
A “Jeopardy!” fan simply reacted and wrote, “Pronunciation matters.”
This was not the first time viewers slammed a controversial ruling on the game show.
Earlier this year, a ruling on an episode of “Jeopardy!” had fans up in arms.
Former game show champion Ken Jennings, right, won 74 consecutive games of “Jeopardy!”. (Photo by Jeopardy Productions via Getty Images)
During an episode of the game show, contestant Kelly Proulx buzzed in to answer a clue in the “Waterfalls” category. She added an extra “s” at the end of her response, which was enough for host Jennings to deny her the points — something fans called “brutal.”
The clue read: “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.”
Proulx answered, “What is Bridalveil Falls?”
Ken Jennings is currently the sole host of “Jeopardy!”. (Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images)
“No, I’m sorry,” Jennings responded. “It’s actually Bridalveil Fall, so we couldn’t take that. It is, ‘What is a bridal veil?’”
Fans were upset at Jennings’ ruling and complained that it was a “brutal call.”
“Kelly should hold a grudge on this one,” one person wrote on the “Jeopardy!” Reddit page, while someone else called the decision against her answer “extremely pedantic.”
Fox News Digital’s Emily Trainham contributed to this report.
