Young jeopardy contestant cheated by Jeopardy?

renard_ruse

Break up Amazon
Joined
Aug 30, 2007
Posts
16,094
A 12-year-old from Newtown, Conn., found that out the hard way while competing on a Kids Week installment of the venerable TV game show, and he's still smarting over it.

"I was pretty upset that I was cheated out of the final 'Jeopardy!' question. It was just a spelling error,'' Thomas Hurley said in an interview published Sunday by the News-Times of Danbury, Conn.

Hurley, an eighth-grader, was a contestant on a "Jeopardy!" show that was taped in February and broadcast last week. In the final round of competition, in which players must write their answers on a slate at their podium, he and the other contestants were asked to name the 1863 document Abraham Lincoln said was a "fit and necessary war measure.''

The answer was the Emancipation Proclamation, which Hurley knew. But he wrote the first word as "emanciptation." Host Alex Trebek ruled it unacceptable and the boy lost the money he'd wagered.

Young Hurley is still proud of having been selected for the show and plans to put the $2,000 he received as second runner-up in a college savings account. "It's just upsetting to have lost that way," he told the News-Times. "I don't know why it would have counted as the wrong answer."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...y-jeopardy-20130804,0,1459277.story?track=rss
 
No, spelling does NOT count in Final Jeopardy. Words do NOT have to be spelled correctly, they can't have extra consonants or be otherwise indescipherable.

The decision is often subjective, so no this is not clear cut as many of the boy's critics are claiming in defending the show.
 
I've noticed a pattern in recent years how they judge males and whites (and especially those with both characteristics) more harshly on the show. Its one reason I stopped watching it. So, it wouldn't surprise me if this is race and/or sex based discrimination.
 
No, spelling does NOT count in Final Jeopardy. Words do NOT have to be spelled correctly, they can't have extra consonants or be otherwise indescipherable.

The decision is often subjective, so no this is not clear cut as many of the boy's critics are claiming in defending the show.
"Emanciptation" has an extra consonant.
 
"Emanciptation" has an extra consonant.

It looks like a typo, but I'm sure it was handwritten. Maybe his writing was so bad they couldn't make out the word. I have seen worse spelling than that get by, but they might be stricter in a tournament. :(
 
s-THOMAS-HURLEY-large.jpg
 
First, I would like to know if other contestants had answered ruled unacceptable based on spelling errors. Google did not help me. If other misspeled, yes, that was deliberate, answers were accepted, then he has a legitimate beef. If other misspelled answers were not accepted, then the precious little snowflake needs to shut up and learn a life lesson, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
 
He wasn't cheated. Even if they had given him the answer he would have wound up in the exact same place he was in. Not one thing would have changed.
People get upset over the stupidest shit.
 
First, I would like to know if other contestants had answered ruled unacceptable based on spelling errors. Google did not help me. If other misspeled, yes, that was deliberate, answers were accepted, then he has a legitimate beef. If other misspelled answers were not accepted, then the precious little snowflake needs to shut up and learn a life lesson, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Copy editors love to change the spellings of words I use. MATERIEL is not MATERIALS.

FEAZE is not PHASE or even FAZE. But FEEZE is okay.
 
I've noticed a pattern in recent years how they judge males and whites (and especially those with both characteristics) more harshly on the show. Its one reason I stopped watching it. So, it wouldn't surprise me if this is race and/or sex based discrimination.

tumblr_mdns33XjG31qgfax7.gif


Yer a funny guy, Renny.
 
Back
Top