‘Jeopardy’ Fans Are Furious After Minor Spelling Error Ends Record-Breaking 9-Fight Winning Streak
You better dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s when competing on “Jeopardy!”
Nine-day champion Ben Chan saw his reign come to an end on Tuesday after he misspelled a one-letter word during Final Jeopardy.
“Both the names of these two lovers in a Shakespeare play come from the Latin words for ‘blessed,'” was the clue in the “Shakespeare Characters” category.
The correct answer is Beatrice and Benedick from “Much Ado About Nothing”, but Chan wrote Beatrice and Benedict, which host Mayim Bialik informed him was wrong.
“She’s a very memorable miss, isn’t she?” he narrated the show afterwards. “So if you’re going to miss a shot, make a memorable shot.”
“Danger!” fans were less than thrilled with how Chan was penalized for what he wrote and weren’t shy about expressing their disgust on Twitter.
“Holy smokes was Ben Chan stolen on @Jeopardy tonight,” one person writing.
“Since when does an error letter count in the final jep? There is no other character he could have signified”, another person underline.
While many fans were in the arms that Chan lost, the show clarifies that contestants must spell correctly if necessary.
“‘Danger!’ is not a spelling test – unless, of course, the category requires it,” he says on the show’s website.
“Written answers to Final Jeopardy! hint do not need to be spelled correctly, but they must be phonetically correct and not add or subtract extraneous sounds or syllables.
Interestingly, the new “Jeopardy!” The champion, Lynn Di Vito, wrote “Romeo and Juli” in Final Jeopardy, which Bialik read as “Romeo and Juliet.”
Despite the loss, Chan leaves behind quite a legacy. It became the first “Jeopardy!” champion for his first nine wins to be a “runaway”, meaning no other competitor could catch him.
Viewers will also see him again as he qualified for the show’s Tournament of Champions.
nbcnews
