‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Blame Writers for a ‘Disaster’ of a Category
Jeopardy! fans are blaming the writers for a category that turned into a disaster for the contestants. The players went zero for five in one of them, which resulted in low totals at the end.
Kara Peruccio, from Bangor, Maine, returned for her second game on Monday, May 12. She had a one-day total of $12,400 and beat her twin who competed on the game show 12 years ago. Peruccio played against Andrew Jones, from Queens, New York, and Rachel Hall, from Washington D.C.
“I have to think it was a special Mother’s Day yesterday for Maureen Peruccio, who has had not one but two of her daughters appear on Jeopardy! Twins!” host Ken Jennings said at the beginning of the episode.
The game started off as a disaster as the contestants answered six of the 15 questions wrong. Peruccio, a university professor, had the lead at the first commercial break, but not by much ($2,400). There were six Triple Stumpers.
The returning champion found the first Daily Double of the game. She wagered $1,000 out of $2,800 to try and maintain the lead. In “Marshall,” the clue read, “James Marshall made an 1848 find ‘beneath the surface of the water’ at a property owned by this man.” She answered, “Who is Napoleon?” “No, I’m afraid not,” Jennings told her. “1848 he found gold in California at John Sutter’s property.” Sutter was the correct answer, so she dropped down to $1,800.
By the end of the round, Peuccio maintained the lead with $3,200. Jones, a graduate student, had $2,400. Hall, a data analyst, was in third with $400.
The disaster came in Double Jeopardy when the contestants did not understand one of the categories. “Jeoportmanteau!” was the category, which was a riff on Portmanteau, which is “a word or part of a word made by combining the spellings and meanings of two or more other words or word parts (such as smog from smoke and fog),” according to Merriam-Webster. However, it had the pre-fix Jeop to make it Jeopardy! themed.
All five of the questions in this category were Triple Stumpers. Hall picked the $400 in the category as the first question of the round. It read, “A mental survey of the past that follows ‘in’ + old-timey term for eyeglasses.” The answer was “retrospectacles.” Hall thought of the answer right before time ran out.
Despite not knowing the first one, she picked the $800 question next. The next clue was “Blushing dwarf of Snow White fame + point about which a lever rests.” Hall thought about it and again buzzed in right as the buzzer sounded. The answer was Bashfulcrum, which none of the contestants got.
They moved away from that category for a few questions until the ninth clue when they weren’t having any luck with “Ancient Persia.” Hall selected the $1,200 clue in “Jeoportmanteau!” with a shrug. “Adjective for something out of place in time + an in-your-face robbery,” was the clue. Anachronistickup was the answer that none of the contestants knew.
The last two clues in that category weren’t picked again until clues 27 and 30. They didn’t have any luck with them either.
Jones found the first Daily Double of the round. With $4,400 in his bank, he wagered $2,400. In “It Ain’t Shakespeare,” the clue read, “Denmark is the setting for many of the stories in her 1942 book Winter’s Tales.” “No clue,” Jones answered. He dropped down to $2,000 with the correct answer being Isak Dinesen.
Two questions later, he found the last DD. He wagered $2,000, out of $3,200. In “Movie & Song Title, Same Name,” the clue was “James Cromwell & Styx.” He answered incorrectly with “Renegade?” The correct answer was “Babe.” Jones dropped down to $1,200 and was tied with Hall. Peruccio had -$400.
The $1,600 question in “Jeoportmanteau!” was “Twin-hulled boat + spoiled or putrid.” It was complete silence in the studio as none of the contestants buzzed in. Catamarancid was the answer. The $2,000 question didn’t go any better. “To urge passionately + the science of growing plants.” Hall buzzed in, but said she “lost it.” The correct answer was exhorticulture.
“Tough category,” Ken Jennings said.
Fans were not happy with that category and blamed the writers for the “disaster.” “After that disaster of a wordplay category, do the writers have a meeting to determine where they went wrong, and maybe agree that being so ‘clever’ that no one knows what they’re going for makes for bad television? Or do they just shrug their shoulders and move on?” the Reddit poster wrote.
“When the contestants go 0-for-5, the blame can’t be put on them. It’s on the writers for trying to be overly cute and clever,” a Reddit user said.
“Yeah only a couple of them seemed gettable in the available time,” replied another.
“I hope Buzzy Cohen wasn’t involved in this. If so, things are off to a rocky start,” said a fourth. Cohen was recently seen in the credits as a writer on the show.
“I got the first 2 pretty easily, but the final 3 were pretty difficult,” one last fan said.
By the end of the round, Hall and Jones were tied with $5,600. Peruccio only had $400. The category for “Final Jeopardy” was Texas Technology.” The clue read, “Just 27 in 1992, he’s still the youngest-ever C.E.O. of a company when it entered the Fortune 500.”
The reigning champion didn’t give a response and wagered $0, giving her a final total of $400. Jones answered, “Who is Mark Cuban?” which was also wrong. He wagered $0 and stayed at $5,600. Hall answered wrong with “Sergei Brin.” Her answer was wrong and she fell to $500 after wagering $5,100. The correct answer was Dell. Jones was the night’s winner with $5,600.
He will be back on Tuesday, May 13, to face off against two new competitors.
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I think the whole game was bad. When smart people can’t answer questions there is something wrong
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O
Easy Final Jeopardy. Michael Dell is pretty famous.
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L
TERRIBLE Category Clues!!!!! So sorry for the players of this episode.😰
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P
The whole show was a disaster so don’t blame one category or the writers.
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G
The criticism should be on the audience, and by extension,the contestants. If a television quiz show must meet the public's interpretation of what is or isn't too difficult, then aren't we really devaluing the concept of disparity in intelligence? After all, the entire premise of this show is for contestants to illustrate their skills across multiple disciplines with the ultimate goal being declared the winner. The category was difficult, but not unsolvable, and would require a very well developed vocabulary combined with the skill of deploying it quickly.
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Sorry... I disagree. As a fan of Jeopardy, I was not angry or critical of the writers and the category in question. Stop speaking for me.
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I got the final Jeopardy answer right away.
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Living in TX, with a Dell laptop sitting in front of me, it was easy for me!
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That was so obvious! I can't believe they all got it wrong!
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R
Jeoportmanteau what was a good category and I got all of them but one!
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I got them all, and I'm not usually that great with wordplay. I sometimes wonder how much of a triple stumper is not knowing, and how much is fear of being wrong.
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Weak players, not bad writers
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I agree with you.
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G
So, the qualifying tests are too easy resulting in weak players?
I hope they weren't dumbed down to be more inclusive.
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I enjoyed that category. I got catamarancid, bashfulcrum, and retrospectacles. It really wasn't that difficult. I liked the minerals and the body parts aka categories too. The contestants just seemed a bit slower than usual. I really felt bad for the guy the day before who answered like 8 in a row incorrectly! He had a huge lead but he didn't know the answer.... oh well, it's a game. You win some, you lose some. It's nobody's fault, especially not the writers or the judges.
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