‘Jeopardy!’ Under Fire From Conservative Viewers – Here’s Why
This… Is… Jeopardy!
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While most Jeopardy! fans are enjoying the tense and often surprising 2024 Tournament of Champions, some conservative viewers are losing their minds over a recent ‘pronouns’ puzzle.
On Monday’s (February 26) episode, Season 39 super-champ Cris Pannullo selected the $600 puzzle under the “Speech! Parts of Speech!” category. The clue read, “Xem, Xyrs, Xemself,” to which Pannullo correctly answered, “What are pronouns?”
“Those are pronouns,” host Ken Jennings confirmed, adding more specifically, “Neopronouns.”
For those unfamiliar, xem/xyrs/xemself are gender-neutral pronouns that have recently grown in popularity. In fact, the social media app Instagram lets users apply pronoun and neopronoun options, including she, her, hers, he, him, his, they, them, thon, thons, hir, ze, zir, zie, xe, xem, xyr, and many more.
Add pronouns to your profile ✨
The new field is available in a few countries, with plans for more. pic.twitter.com/02HNSqc04R
— Instagram (@instagram) May 11, 2021
Of course, this ruffled the feathers of some viewers who seemingly fear anything against the norm.
“I will NEVER watch Jeopardy after this. After Alex [Trebek], it all went downhill,” wrote one fan on X (formerly Twitter).
“@Jeopardy lost a lifetime fan over pronouns,” said another. “Never thought you would condone mental illness for viewership.”
Jeopardy asked about xem/xyrs/xemself “pronouns” during last night’s show
How would you answer this? pic.twitter.com/dAjSLu3lRz
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 27, 2024
“I still watch Jeopardy every day but their questions and answers keep getting weirder and weirder,” added one commenter. “When Alex Trebek was still alive we never had any of this.”
“Now @Jeopardy gets to be on my permanent banned list,” added another, while radio broadcaster Mike Opelka said, “Dear God, we’ve lost #Jeopardy to the woke insanity.”
“Go woke, go broke!” said another, echoing a common refrain among conservatives raging amid the ongoing culture war.
Despite the anger from some quarters, Jeopardy! is, in fact, not going ‘broke.’ The show continues to lead the ratings across all of syndication. As of the week ended January 22, Jeopardy! held a 5.9 live-plus-same-day national household rating, according to Nielsen, making it 16 straight weeks at the top of the chart.
In addition, the use of gender-neutral pronouns has grown in recent years. According to a 2021 study from the Pew Research Center, a reported 26 percent of adults in the United States “personally knew someone who goes by gender-neutral pronouns such as ‘they’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘she.'”
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