‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Unhappy With ‘Unreasonable’ Pronunciation Ruling
Are Jeopardy!‘s rulings on pronunciation getting too inconsistent? That’s what some fans were thinking after a returning champ was instantly shut down over many perceived as a vocal slip-up on an otherwise correct response on a top-row clue.
On Wednesday, November 13’s episode, two-day champ Joey DeSena, a development engineer from Raleigh, North Carolina, faced Lois Dioro, a realtor from West Haven, Connecticut, and Evan Dorey, a data analytics director from Toronto, Ontario.
In the Double Jeopardy! round, DeSena selected the $200 clue in the “You’ll Learn to Adapt” category. It read, “From 2013 to 2017, Tom Mison kept his head during some rough situations as this TV character in ‘Sleepy Hollow.'” The correct response was “Ichabod Crane.”
DeSena responded, “Who is “Ichapod Crane?” according to the J-Archive. Host Ken Jennings stepped in before he got the opportunity to correct himself. “He was — no, we can’t take that,” Jennings said. Fellow contestant Dorey got it correct afterward.
The ruling cost DeSena a $400 swing, and he wound up in contention in Final Jeopardy by only $100 since Dioro and Dorey were tied at $14,600, and he had $7,400. Dorey won the game with the sole Final Jeopardy get, with the judges allowing “Highland” instead of “Highlands” making him the new champ (which was a separate can of worms and amplified the juxtaposition.)
While the ruling didn’t impact the results, many fans took to the Reddit thread for the episode saying the ruling was unnecessarily harsh and he should have gotten the leeway from the judges to correct himself.
“Joey’s voice catching on ‘Ichabod’ and not getting credit for it is crazy,” one user wrote.
“Absolutely an occasion for ‘Say it again…?’ C’mon, ‘Ichapod’ isn’t even a name and switching B/P phonemes is very much a part of some accents,” wrote another.
“The judging seems to be rather arbitrary and capricious to me. Can’t accept ‘ichapod,’ but can accept ‘highland,'” wrote a third referring to what later happen in Final Jeopardy.
“I’m not sure about Highland and the precedent there, but ‘Ichapod’ is a different pronunciation which they typically take a hard line against. Changes the spelling,” defended a fifth.
“‘Ichapod’ would definitely be wrong, but it seemed like Joey just got tongue-tied and it came out a little funny (so that it was somewhere between a b and p sound), so I think it would have been reasonable for Ken to give him another crack at it (“Say it again?”) just to be sure,” agreed a sixth.
“Yeah I agree with that take,” wrote one more. “The judges seem to be harsher about it as of recent but maybe I just didn’t notice in the past. Difficult to get real data on that.”
“I think it became too late to do this because Ken had already started ruling on Joey’s response before catching himself over the ‘pod’ snafu. So at that point he had to let him have it or rule against him. The BMS/second chance option was off the table at that point,” wrote one more.
This isn’t the first time Jeopardy! has been hit with a mispronunciation controversy recently, with fans wondering if the judges could be more consistent. Last month, four-day champ Will Wallace was denied a slight variation on “weimaraner.” Earlier this season, the refusal of a player’s take on “anesthesiologist” caused a stir. Last May, all three contestants were ruled incorrect for not pronouncing Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s name correctly.
However, there have been some questionably lenient rulings in tow. Last season, a player was ruled correct for a blatant mispronunciation of “larynx” (“lar-nyx?”). Another player got three stabs to get to “The observatory of Greenwich,” first saying “Greenwich,” then “Greenwhich Observatory,” finally getting there as Jennings quipped, “I did not want to leave you hanging.”
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Conversation22 Comments
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Comments are closed on this story.
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O
I don't like the host of jeopardy. He doesn't have the charisma that host of as a game host should have.
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L
You don't know what you're talking about and neither do the 5 up voters who think this game show host should have charisma. It's a trivia game, a game that tests intelligence, not charisma. Ken's a GOAT, so please respect that when passing judgment.
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G
And apparently you don’t have the knowledge of how to structure a sentence - “CHARISMA THAT HOST OF AS A GAME HOST”…🥴
You’d never get past the parking lot guard shack🤣
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O
Yep, the Jeopardy naysayers are at it again, don't these people have lives?
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G
Maybe they could allow a set amount of time before Ken denies a questionable answer. Sometimes he says no immediately, and other times he hesitates.
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O
Just be consistent. That's all.
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G
🦋. Jeopardy! is the entertaining and educational TV show I have watched forever. I’m interested in the personal information each contestant shares, I marvel at Ken Jenning’s professionalism, I admire the writers and researchers who write amazing answers with the subtle hints. I hope the champions have a good life with their winnings and other contestants (not losers in my book) will try again. 🤗 I’m happy after watching Jeopardy! Thank You for a job well done. 🥰
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S
What about the final jeopardy question about a 19th Century president’s name that is a dancing name?
Was that lame, or what?
President Polk for the similarly pronounced Polka.
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O
My first reaction, too. Totally lame.
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G
Lame? How so? Polk. PolkA. I got it before my teenage honor student👍🏻.
Way to go Grandma 👵
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R
I agree that he coulda corrected the name if given the chance, Ken little fast on the overrule & yet he took another name that wasn't as close. He gave the win away. They need to make some adjustments on these things. It sounded to me that the guy may have burped or something to cause the mistake. These things happen, but they need to make adjustments.
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C
Ken seems to do what he wants depending on who the contestant is. There are clear rules around forming your answer in question form but how often do we see him letting contestants away with that ("Yes but remember your phrasing") while other times he's very strict ("Sorry, you didn't answer in the form ofa question")!?
It's unjust!
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R
He let's each player do it once, and gives them a reminder. After once you are expected to get it, and you will lose the money. He is consistent in that rule.
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G
I could swear there was at least one time recently where he left a contestant get away with it twice. It may have been in different rounds.
However when the contestant tried it during the Daily Double, they were ruled wrong due to the phrasing.
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O
How can you tell the different between a 'b' and 'p' sound in normal conversation?
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G
Paying attention and listening to the speaker would help.
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R
I don't like the inconsistent enforcement of the pronouncement rule, but he did very clearly say pod when it was supposed to be bod. I knew right then he was getting dinged.
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O
Both of the responses you cite are exactly the same. What is the issue?
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G
That’s what I was wondering. I must have re-read that post 5 times and it looked the same each time. 🤣
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G
Why was Isaac's pronunciation of Lippizan accepted, when iþ was very obviously mispronounced?
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O
"Fans" seem to be more and more idiotic. IcaPod was wrong. Period.
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R
I think it might be proper names you have to pronounce right the way the person does it (or place) but non proper nouns you can say it any way so long as it wouldn't change the spelling...
That is my best guess from what I have seen. I could easily be wrong. I'm often frusterated by the inconsistencies, so came up with this.
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