‘Jeopardy!’: Jamie Ding Game Sparks Fan Backlash Amid Pronunciation Controversies

Give them the points! Jeopardy! fans are raging over pronunciations on the April 22 game. Jamie Ding, along with his competitors, all pronounced words oddly. Some fans think that his opponent should have been marked right, even though he added an “S” to a word.

The first controversy was when host Ken Jennings was announcing the categories in the first round. The last three categories were “Primer,” “Foundation,” and “Lipgloss.”

He said “Primer” (Pry-mur) like “Prim-ur.” The game show contestants followed suit and said it the same way. Primer is a makeup product and also a foundational coating of paint. However, when using the definition of a small book that teaches children how to read it is pronounced with a soft “I.”

“Today I learned that ‘primer’ is not pronounced with a long ‘i,'” a Reddit user said.

“I thought it was a series of makeup clues with foundation and the other one,” another commented.

“Yeah, me too,” a fan said.

But that is not the only controversial ruling of the game. The second two happened in Double Jeopardy.

Clue five in “Post-Apocalyptic  Page-Turners” was “The 1961 Hugo for Best Science Fiction Novel went to Walter M. Miller Jr., author of A Canticle for this last name.”

Ding, who had the lead with $12,200 at the time, answered “Who is Leibovitz?” Jennings said it was close, but the answer was “Leibowitz.” 

Fans thought Ding, a law student and bureaucrat, should have scored correctly for his pronunciation. “That ‘Canticle for Leibowitz’ miss hurt. When everyone knows you’re right, but you still end up wrong. At least it didn’t affect the outcome,” a Reddit user said.

“This one annoyed me because I thought w -> v would have been a perfectly valid German-ish pronunciation of Leibowitz. Doesn’t help there are some famous Leibovitzes out there,” another replied.

“They have accepted Ws pronounced as Vs at other times, like for Lake Malawi, so I’m not sure why the phonetic pronunciation rule of ‘if those letters could reasonably make the correct sound / that sound could reasonably be made by the correct letters’ didn’t apply,” a third wondered.

“The Leibowitz decision is egregious, and the worst decision I’ve encountered in 15 years of watching J! It could just be that Jamie didn’t challenge it, though. Sometimes things are only corrected if they are challenged,” another fan commented.

The final pronunciation controversy came towards the end of the game. This time it was for Ruey Yen, from Los Angeles, California.

Clue 22 was in the category “Siblings.” It was “Before they built airplanes, these siblings sold & repaired bicycles in Dayton, Ohio.”

Yen answered “Who are the Wrights Brother?” when the correct response was “Who are the Wright Brothers?” Jennings said he was right, and he was awarded $400.

“I am glad I am not the only one who thought the judges were a bit off tonight. Ruey clearly said Wrights brothers. Not Wright brothers. I am sorry, but he’s wrong,” a Reddit user said.

“Wrights is totally wrong,” another wrote.

“How the heck did that one guy get credit for two mispronounced answers but they ‘Dinged’ (ha!) Jamie for using the German pronunciation of ‘v’ for ‘w’? This was such a weird game,” a fan asked.

“Jamie was robbed. Obviously, he knew the title, and he gave it the correct (not Americanized) pronunciation. Yet other guy was not penalized for ‘Wrights’ brothers. Infuriating,” a Reddit user replied.

“Wtf is Ken on today, allowing these pronunciations from Ruey and not accepting the German W from Jamie,” a fan wondered.

“It’s up to the judges, but I agree. I was expecting a score change later,” another replied.

“Boy, lots of ‘leeway’ last night with answers. The judges allowed or disallowed lots of weird things,” a fan said.

Other pronunciations that fans pointed out were “proscribed” over “prescribed” and “world world web” over “World Wide Web.”

Did you notice these pronunciations last night, ot any that we missed? Let us know in the comments.