Jeopardy! viewers couldn’t believe their ears after host Ken Jennings accepted a mispronounced answer during Monday night’s episode, with furious fans claiming the ruling ‘soured the whole game.’
The controversial moment took place when Ken, 50, presented players Zoe Strassfield, Matt Brooks and Cat Pisacano with a clue from the anatomy category.
Reading aloud the clue, Ken said: ‘There are both false and true vocal cords in this hollow, tubular structure, also called the voice box.’
Matt buzzed in and answered: ‘What’s the lar-nyx?’
Despite not looking completely convinced by his response, Ken reluctantly accepted the pronunciation.
Jeopardy! viewers couldn’t believe their ears after Ken Jennings accepted a mispronounced answer
Matt Brooks mispronounced the word ‘larynx’ but still had his answer accepted
‘Yes, we will take that, yes,’ he said.
Given that ‘Larnyx’ is not the correct spelling, Ken then clarified: ‘Larynx.’
The mispronunciation didn’t go unnoticed, with viewers left fuming at Ken’s leniency as they questioned why it wasn’t disallowed.
One viewer wrote on X: ‘Are standards really so low that we must accept “larnyx” for larynx?’
Another perplexed user added: ‘Why did they give that to him?’
Viewers were equally irritated by Ken’s decision on Reddit.
‘How on earth can that be considered an acceptable answer when historically the judges have been total sticklers for pronunciations that imply an extremely incorrect spelling?’ asked one.
‘Larnyx is a totally different (nonsensical) word.’
The clue read: ‘There are both false and true vocal cords in this hollow, tubular structure, also called the voice box’
Jeopardy! viewers were furious at host Ken’s leniency and questioned why it wasn’t disallowed
Echoing a similar sentiment another said: ‘How in the world did they accept “larnyx” as a correct response for “larynx”?
‘They say pronunciation doesn’t count, but they routinely count answers wrong when the spelling and pronunciation don’t go together – “larnyx” is just not a conceivable way to pronounce “larynx”.
‘We were expecting them to come back and correct the score on that and they didn’t. It really soured the whole game for me.’
Jeopardy’s rules on pronunciation are not particularly clear.
Last year, host Mayim Bialik refused to accept one player’s answer when they mispronounced Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s name, even though she herself noted it was ‘tricky’ to say.
Despite the controversy on Monday night’s episode, Matt was hailed the new winner after correctly answering the final Jeopardy clue.
He will face two new contestants on Tuesday.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk