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Jeopardy! fans were left truly furious after a ‘positively disgusting’ move from host Ken Jennings and the judges cost one contestant thousands of dollars.
The gameshow has been on our screens for around 60 years and sees contestants given an answer before they are asked to supply the trivia question.
On Wednesday night’s episode, returning champion Kelly Proulx battled it out against Dana Keane and Isaac Hirsch for the title.
Things took a turn when the presenter, 50, asked the trio a question from the waterfalls category, for $2,000.
‘A Yosemite fall with a wispy ribbon of water that flutters in the air like a diaphanous cloth bears the name of this marital wear,’ he said.
Kelly was quick on her feet and buzzed in to answer: ‘What is Bridalveil Falls?’
Ken Jennings has been slammed by Jeopardy! viewers (Picture: ABC)
However, Ken was unable to accept her response due to her use of ‘falls’ instead of ‘fall’
‘No, I’m sorry,’ he brutally explained. ‘It’s actually Bridalveil Fall, so we couldn’t take that. It is, “What is a Bridalveil?”‘
This caused serious confusion with those watching from home as it is listed as Bridalveill Fall on the official Yosemite website, but other falls in the area often go by ‘falls’ instead of ‘fall’ – including Yosemite Falls, Ribbon Falls and Rancheria Falls.
The ruling meant that Kelly was in last place at the end of the first round, and couldn’t make this up by Final Jeopardy!, with Isaac taking home the whopping $19k prize.
Kelly Proulx appeared on the game show this week (Picture: ABC)
She ended up losing the gameshow (Picture: ABC)
Viewers were left furious by the ruling and flocked to Reddit to unpack the scenes, branding Ken’s decision ‘extremely pedantic’.
Taking to the official Jeopardy! sub, Mccracal fumed: ‘If the clue only required you to say “Bridalveil”, why does it matter if Kelly said “fall” or “falls” after? People call it “Bridalveil Falls” all the time, including the National Park Service!
‘Guess it doesn’t really matter since nobody got Final Jeopardy right but I’d still be pretty frustrated if I were her.’
Jaysjep2 agreed: ‘”Fall” was in the clue, so clearly did not need to be said in the response. And yes, people do call it “Falls”. To rule her incorrect there was extremely pedantic IMO.’
Fans were fuming over the question and ‘pedantic’ answer (Picture: ABC)
Kuckucksuhr furiously penned: ‘I typically give long and wide deference to the judges, but f**k the judges for that ruling.
‘There is nothing pinning the clue to “fall”, so she got the required information correct. that was positively disgusting.’
TrixiesHusband shared: ‘Absolutely. That ruling was garbage.’
Others defended Ken and the judges over the error, explaining that Kelly ‘added incorrect information’ to her answer, which is the reason she didn’t get the points.
Some defended the scenes on Reddit (Picture: ABC)
‘She was judged to be incorrect because she added incorrect information at the end of a correct response,’ PM_ME_AReasonToLive said. ‘Just the same as if a contestant were to respond with an incorrect first name but the correct last name when just the last name was needed.
‘If the first name is needed Ken would ask the contestant to be more specific, but in Kelly’s case she got too specific from the start and it cost her. Judges made the right call 100%.’
As ThePhatbeard added: ‘The correct response was “What is a bridal veil?” – the clue was asking what marital garment the waterfall looks like.
‘Instead, she responded “What is Bridalveil Falls”, which is not the correct name for the landmark, that extra S (and in fact adding “Falls” altogether) cost her the clue.’
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