‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Debate ‘Absolutely Brutal’ Daily Double Ruling
An “absolutely brutal” Daily Double ruling may have cost a Jeopardy! Champion their chance to compete in the Tournament of Champions on Friday’s (May 23) edition of the series.
Brendan Liaw, a stay-at-home son from Vancouver, British Columbia, came into the game with a three-day winning streak and a total of $59,398. Competing against him were Jim Carpenter, a retired music professor from Charlotte, Vermont, and Congressional liaison David Crockett from Washington D.C.
In the first round, Liaw took the lead, earning $5,200 to Crockett’s $4,000 and Carpenter’s $3,800. It was Carpenter who secured the Daily Double for the round — correctly guessing that “acid test” was the idiom described by the clue, “Its original sense had to do with dissolving metals to determine gold content; now it means an ultimate proof.” By wagering $1,000 on the DD, Carpenter brought himself close to the others.
During the interviews segment of the day, Liaw, who’s in search of a career, revealed his ambition: to become a comedy writer for Conan O’Brien.
In Double Jeopardy, it was Liaw who found both Daily Doubles. The first came in the category “S is for Small,” and he wagered $5,000 of his available $12,000. The clue read, “From the Latin for ‘spark,’ it’s a tiny amount; add -ting & it describes something that’s sparkling.” Liaw answered incorrectly and dropped his score to $7,000. The second Daily Double came in the category “Pop Culture Gems.” At this point in the game, Liaw was at $8,200 to Crocket’s $12,400 and Carpenter’s $12,200, and there was little money left on the board. So Liaw decided to take a big risk and make it a “True Daily Double,” but unfortunately for him, this is where a judgment call had a huge impact on his game. The clue read, “Colin Firth played Vermeer in this 2003 film.” The correct answer was Girl With a Pearl Earring, and the judges ruled that his response was “with the” instead, making the internal article (and thus the answer) incorrect.
That left him in a hole he could not recover from. Liaw ended the second round with -$1,600 and thus did not qualify for Final Jeopardy. Meanwhile, Carpenter came in with $13,400, a very slight lead over Crockett’s $12,800.
In the category “Time,” the clue read, “Eponymously named & in use for more than 1,600 years, it was based in part on concepts from the Greek mathematician Sosigenes.” While Crockett incorrectly guessed that it was the sun (after crossing out the also-incorrect chronometer) and lost $3,999 — leaving him with $8,801 as his grand total — Carpenter correctly answered that it was the Julian Calendar, adding $12,201 for a total of $25,601 and making him a one-day champion.
Many fans felt that the ruling against Liaw on the third Daily Double of the day was unfair, however, and some engaged in a very technical debate over the matter on Reddit.
“Absolutely brutal ruling on that DD. I’m listening back to it at half speed and at least on the broadcast audio i can’t see how they can justify ruling that as clearly being ‘with the’ instead of ‘with a.’ There’s no pause between the two ‘th’ sounds and the vowel after it would sound the same either way. I do somewhat hear two stages to the ‘th’ sound when i slow it down to 1/4 speed, but that still just sounds like what your mouth naturally does when you come off the ‘th’ at the end of ‘with’ into a vowel. It’s like if they ruled against ‘What’s Apple’ by saying ‘No, ‘sapple’ is wrong,'” one fan wrote.
Another responded by saying, “I’m also listening to it slowed down and to my ear it’s 100% ‘with the.’ The second syllable clearly starts with ‘th’, and I don’t see how you can reasonably interpret it as the ‘-th’ carried over from the end of ‘with.’ Maybe a linguist can explain speak to this more specifically, but I’m pretty sure I hear a glottal stop at the end of ‘with’, so the ‘th; after it would have to be the start of ‘the.’ Tough but fair ruling, imo. Brendan will be a formidable competitor in Champions Wildcard.”
Yet another fan pointed out that having such a small part of the clue result in such a devastating loss meant it shouldn’t be qualified for Daily Double selection: “Also seemed like a bad choice for a DD when they could expect a tiny meaningless error like that might ruin someone’s game,” they noted.
“That’s why on Wheel, contestants often solve the puzzle while TALKING. VERY. SLOWLY. So there can be no doubt they are saying it exactly,” another said on the thread.
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What bothers me most about these decisions is that they are not consistent. When Alex was hosting, the judges were much more careful about their calls. Nowadays, they seem to be all over the place. It would also be helpful if both Ken and the contestants would enunciate more clearly and slowly -- but like everything else today, lightning speed seems to be the name of the game. Too bad.
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Really hate these difficult rulings, but the decision was technically correct. Let\'s say if Brendan left out the article---in this case---he might still be penalized, whereas he would get credit if the article was at the beginning of the original title.
Anyway, he did great. Hope to see him in the next Wildcard Tournament.
I remember another similar instance where former champ Ben Chan was technically correct in final jeopardy, but he misspelled just 1 letter in the other half of his response. Unfortunately, that changed part of its pronunciation/phonetic sound.
I wonder how often, including recently, does Ken ponder about \"what am I going to do?\"
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The judges thru his earpiece often make the ruling
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I don’t think fair I think he should’ve got the money for that question. It’s like when they ask you a question about a certain person they might say the last name give them credit for it, but the person didn’t say their first name you know what’s up with that
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When it\'s a Title of something it needs to be exact
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Brendan WAS wrong in the title...plain and simple. I heard it many times on YouTube.
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I remember a few months back the judges allowed larnyx for larynx. Larnyx is not even a word. But I guess they allow because so many people pronounce as such, but if you are a contestant you should know the correct anatomical term.
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I remember that one and was surprised they allowed it. Would the ruling be the same for the commonly mispronounced \"nucular\" instead of \"nuclear\"?
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He should of not been given credit for answering \"Arnold\" as being synonymous with a traitor. He should have given the full name \"Benedict Arnold\", since there are many others...Arnold Schwarzenegger, Palmer etc. Contestants should be required to give both the first & last name!
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should HAVE. (When did everyone start saying \"should of\"? Do they not teach this in elementary school anymore?)
And no, they shouldn\'t have to give the full name when it\'s not necessary. That would get tedious pretty quickly. And it\'s not like they haven\'t thought the rules through.
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Sheesh, almost every day is another Jeopardy controversy!
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Disappointed at jeopardy! Judges elimination Branden, an articulate smart contestant by such a petty ruling of seemingly missing “a” instead of “the”in his answer.
I thought I never say this, but after 50+ years of watching this show, I’m gonna take a pause and step away now. Can’t help but feel favoritism, bias and jealousy towards B. Liaw.
Shame on you Jeopardy!.
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Titles need to be exact.
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unfair ruling. why do they allow contestants to use the wrong term then such as what is when the answer is a person Matt annoyingly did that all the time! if they are going to be technical it should be across the board!
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Third DD should not have been a DD. Better that a music question asked so that \"Hungry Like a Wolf\" could be ruled as incorrect, as it was not \"Hungry Like The Wolf\".
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they are picky as fuck anyway.
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As they were back in the day
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A vs the Very upset with Jeopardy. Liaw should have won. Too f’ing contentious .We have enough turmoil in our lives with what is going on in our world right now. Will stop watching the show I /we have watched for > 30 years.
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It was totally unfair. He should have won !!!
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Either the contestants should have to be specifically consistent all the time or they should allowed to be \"close enough\" all the time. I\'ve seen responses accepted that, to my mind, weren\'t even close, yet they penalized \"the\" when it should have been \"a\". Contestants should have to give first and last names all the time or only last.
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The man knew the answer which is what should count even if a small part doesn\'t fit. Jeopardy is run by a group of stuffed shirts who are holier than thou.
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The guy that was a congressional liason earlier had answered with a bit of a mumble. When the correct answer was given, he shrugged. His answer was clearly not the same as Ken Jennings said; but they gave him the benefit. They need to play that portion back. You have to be fair across the board,
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What did Liaw say?
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Don’t care, I quit watching when fans drove Mayim away and producers apparently didn’t fight for her. I have not watched since she left. I liked having both hosts.
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I think I’ll take a break from Jeopardy for awhile. I’ve been watching long enuff to know that that was bull crap. Sleww
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Crime against humanity or crime against THE humanity that watch jeopardy.
The young man got screwed
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Dumbest ruling I’ve seen in a long time. He got the most important part correct: Girl, Pearl, Earring. If he had said, “Girl with the Pearl Necklace,” it would’ve been incorrect. I’m waiting for the day when they ask “Location of Yankee Stadium,” they respond “Bronx,” and are judged incorrect because it’s “The Bronx.” I’m going to give Jeopardy a vacation for awhile.
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They\'re not picky about articles at the beginning. But when it\'s in the middle of a title, they are. Contestants were almost set up to fail on this one because of how sounds come out when speaking quickly.
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Yes. Speaking SO quickly, to allow time for more commercials, causes misunderstandings many times in both the answers and in the clues, and in understanding Ken, who I love. ;-)
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