‘Jeopardy!’ Fans React to Controversial Dr. Seuss Ruling by Judges
Jeopardy! fans are not happy with how one question turned out. The game show took away a contestant’s answer, which lowered their score going into Final Jeopardy.
On Friday, April 11, Stephanie Rosman, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, played against Michael DiScuillo, from Austin, Texas, and returning champion, Andrew Hayes, from Tupelo, Mississippi.
Going into Double Jeopardy, Rosman was in third with $4,600. One question during this round caused controversy after Rosman’s answer. The clue read, “After he was barred from contributing to Dartmouth’s humor magazine, Ted Geisel began submitting pieces under this middle name.” She answered with, “Who is Dr. Seuss?” His real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel.
“That’s how he became Dr. Seuss. Yes,” host Ken Jennings said. Rosman gained another $400. She ended the round with $13,700, putting her in second.
However, when the game show came back from a commercial break right before Final Jeopardy, Jennings told Rosman that the answer was ruled incorrectly because she said “doctor” instead of just Seuss. They took away $800 from her total, dropping her down to third place with $12,900.
“Maybe I’m wrong, but that Seuss/Dr. Seuss ruling seemed harsh,” a Reddit user said.
“Yes, I thought it would fall under the ‘you can provide extra information as long as all the information is correct’ precedent,” said another.
“I didn’t understand their reasoning,” added a third.
“Yeah, that was dumb. His middle name is obviously not the literal ‘Dr Seuss.’ The other 2 players should be allowed to veto the ruling, haha,” said another.
However, some fans agreed that Rosman was wrong and shouldn’t have said “Doctor.”
“All the more reason to rule it incorrect,” a fan replied to the above comment.
“Because saying only the middle name (not the full name) was required,” a user said.
“I’d rather they were harsh on rulings like this and not so strict on minor pronunciation errors. Fact is, his middle name was not Dr Seuss,” wrote one last fan.
Rosman did not win the game, coming in $1,000 under her opponents after Final Jeopardy.
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