‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Slam ‘Terrible’ Final Clue – See Ken Jennings’ Reaction
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the October 9 episode of Jeopardy!]
Jeopardy! champ Mark Fitzpatrick sailed to his fourth win on Wednesday, October 9, but the episode wasn’t without its wave-making moments, including a contestant being introduced as “a girl-between-gigs.”
Content manager Fitzpatrick from Riverside, Connecticut entered with a three-day total of $58,000, facing Robert Franke, a data analyst from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and Colleen Kelly (her profession above) from Melrose, Massachusetts.
In the Jeopardy! round, despite losing $2400 on a True Daily Double, Mark was at his most comfortable, gameplay and personality-wise. After a humorous anecdote about a study abroad “boat-train” mixup with a German accent punchline (“Clazzic Americans”), he had rebounded to $5,400, Rob had $2,600, and Colleen $0.
In the mix was a $600 clue in the “TV Coupling” category, entailing naming famous TV couples. The clue was: “Sheldon & Amy, pure genius.” Colleen correctly responded: “What is The Big Bang Theory?”
Mayim Bialik played Amy Farrah Fowler on the iconic CBS sitcom before becoming Ken Jennings’ co-host. Bialik was axed from Jeopardy! role last December, never to return to the franchise. Naturally, fans took notice of the shameless… homage.
“Always gets me when a Big Bang Theory clue comes up in the post-Mayim era,” one Redditor wrote in the thread for the episode.
“In a few years, they should do a category when the answers are just all Jeopardy hosts, from Art Fleming, to Mayim Bialik, even George Stephanopoulos,” quipped another.
In Double Jeopardy!, Mark extended his lead on back-to-back Daily Doubles and never looked back, breezing into Final Jeopardy with a runaway of $23,600, Scott with $6,200, Colleen with $5,600. Final Jeopardy, however, was not such a breeze, according to fans.
The “Word Origins” clue read: “This word for one who cuts a trail comes from a name of a character in an 1840 novel.” For the third straight game, it was a triple-stumper, as no one came up with “Pathfinder.” Mark bet $0, winning a four-day total of $81,600 and an all-but-guaranteed ToC invite.
Ken explained to the players: “There is a James Fenimore Cooper novel called The Pioneers but also one called ‘The Pathfinder’. About Natty Bumppo. ‘Pathfinder…'” he re-enforced.
Other fans took to the same Reddit thread to discuss the Final Jeopardy clue, with many struggling to make sense of it.
“Is anyone able to explain the FJ question to me? It said the name of the character… But the answer wasn’t part of the characters name, unless I’m missing something really obvious,” one user wrote.
“Yeah what? I’m not familiar with the book so just taking Ken at his word, but if his explanation is accurate that’s two straight poorly written FJs,” wrote another.
“A Final jeopardy where you have to discern between two synonymous James Fenimore Cooper titles is pretty dang hard,” wrote a third as a fourth said: “Cut a trail”? Wonky wording for the last clue.”
One more roared: “That FJ was terrible. So it’s a book in a series, nope. It’s not the name of a character, nope. It’s not a word origin. One who finds a path. Is path a word from 1840? So we are saying the word pathfinder, abjectly two words stuck together’s origin is from a nickname that is one of many applied to a character in a series of books. Sounds like crap to me.”
Final Jeopardy savant Jennifer Quail shared how she got there: “I knew when I saw ‘trail’ in there that couldn’t be it, figured it was Cooper, figured ‘Deerslayer’ was obviously wrong, and thought the correct answer.”
Fans have noticed that Final Jeopardy clues are oscillating lately between very difficult and very easy. Tuesday night’s “World Flag’s” triple-stumper was seeking “European Union,” but all the players and many viewers at home were thinking of a specific country based on the wording. Meanwhile, viewers were stunned that no one knew Monday night’s spelled-out “Coca-Cola” answer. The week before, the players were tasked with identifying The Office based on what was essentially a mini-synopsis.
What did you think about Final Jeopardy, Mark’s ToC odds, and the Mayim Bialik flashback? Let us know in the comments (any “Bazingas” will be flagged for review.)
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Conversation21 Comments
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Comments are closed on this story.
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Don't blame Ken for clues or answers m. He is not the one who writes them. I think he is doing a great job and feel those who complain about him only complain because the person they wanted did not get the job.
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I THINK KEN JENNINGS IS ABSOLUTELY THE MAN, THE PERFECT NATURAL FIT CHOICE TO TAKEOVER AS HOST FOR THE SECOND GENERATION. REMEMBER BEFORE ALL THIS NEW TOURNAMENT PLAY TOOK OVER THE SHOW KEN WAS THE GREATEST PLAYER.
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I'm no genius, but the first word that flew out of my mouth was "pathfinder" (Scouting background from way back when). I also thought about "trailblazer", but it just didn't feel old enough
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I'm "elderly" and have been watching Jeopardy for a very, very long time ⌛️ The clues are definitely much more difficult, but contestants are also smarter. I plan my time around the program and still love the challenge ❤️
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I grew up playing Authors cards and I remember always forgetting The Pathfinder when trying to get JF Coopers books. So that just popped in my mind as soon as I saw the answer. I was so proud of myself! Also, I think Ken is doing a fabulous job!
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Ken is great as is the show!! Been watching it for decades and love getting the correct answer...now & then lol It's an American show with their own wordings on things so sometimes when Canadians or U.K people are on, there will be differences. Keep up the great work Ken!!
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I thought it was confusing/poorly worded also, but I'm used to Jeopardy having weird questions from time to time. Just too bad it happened in a FJ question, when contestants can't opt out of answering.
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Like several others, "Pathfinder" popped immediately in my mind. The ease or difficulty of a question depends on the life experience of the listener. Sometimes I find the 5th club much easier than the first! That's my experience showing.
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I thought the wording was confusing as it made me think that the answer would be a name of a character. Was "pathfinder" part of the character's name in Cooper's book? I felt that Ken Jennings could have done a better job of explaining the answer.
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I knew it was JFC trilogy that "Last of the Mohican's" was from, and that it was Natty Bumpo, but for the life of me could not come up with "Pathfinder". Same with EU, came close by guessing the UN because I had forgotten the 12 stars on that blue Ensign.
Nice to know the split with Mayim's split is official. I liked her and her support for the actors and writers, but her blind support for Bibi was shocking, out of the blue and too far for me.
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What about "traiblazer"?
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That's what I thought it was. My husband spent most of his working life with a parks agency developing and building new trails. Never referred to as a "pathfinder".
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I'm still astounded that Ken Jennings essentially GAVE an answer to a contestant who answered incorrectly. She stated "What is A Thousand and One Nights?" Ken then said, "Yes, that's correct. A Thousand and One Arabian Nights." No, that is not what she said! She left out the "Arabian" part. Based on how they penalize contestants for something as trivial as misspelling, I assumed they would have realized the mistake and adjusted her score accordingly. But they let it slide.
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I think that anytime a contestant says"Bring it" , they should automatically lose all of their money! When I hear that I switch channels 😞! That means that the show is turning off viewers
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C
We thought Coca Cola fj was easy - & surprised no one got it.
The flag question was ridiculous & misleading.
I got the Pathfinder answer but it was worded so that it was confusing.
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B
Poorly worded for sure... a pathfinder finds paths... they don't cut tralis... trailblazer would've been more correct if not for the book reference
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I got it right off the bat. Really thought they would all get it.
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I knew the book, author and character. Understood the question.
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I knew the answer and I never read the book.
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I actually knew the correct answer.
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The clues really suck for quite a while now (my opinion).
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