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Jeopardy! fans slam host Mayim Bialik for BIZARRE fictitious category that made 'no sense'

The category was 'Texting Abbreviations' and regular Jeopardy! fans may have expected to see slang phrases, but they were not present

Mayim Bialik was lambasted by JEOPARDY! fans on Tuesday, June 5 for a category that "made no sense." Several people thought the clues, which left all three new players speechless, were "made up." Bialik, 46, is presenting Jeopardy! for the fifth week in a stretch, following Ken Jennings' three weeks as host and news that he would be gone for "months." The permanent hosting spot is still up for grabs, and it will be decided by the end of Season 38, which will take place in July 2022.

On the night of Monday, June 6 it was Ryan Long's final lap after 16 wins, the ninth-longest winning streak in history, and a total of $299K, the adored broad-shouldered smarty pants couldn't weather the storm against Eric Ahasiac. The meteorologist from Minneapolis, Minnesota, won again on Tuesday night with a total of $40K, but not before one round that left both viewers and players confused.

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The category was "Texting Abbreviations" and regular Jeopardy! fans may have expected to see slang phrases, but they were not present. "Talk to you tomorrow, I'm 'OTB,'" the first one stated. Now that Ahasiac, the two-day winner, had beaten Long on Monday night, he was able to correctly predict "Off To Bed?" but after that, it was anyone's guess or no one's guess.

"FC is this hopeful condition," Bialik read another. She broke the silence with a cheerful, "Finger's crossed!" when no player buzzed in and all three looked perplexed. "I've Got To Know, 'PTMM,'" said a third. "Please tell me more!" Bialik gasped as no one on stage responded, and the audience nervously chuckled.

"Where Have You Been? 'LTNS'" read the final clue. And yet again there was no response from any of the players. "Long time no see!" Bialik exclaimed to herself. No player buzzed in after adding 4/5 hints to the category: "What will those texting kids think of next?!"

Fans took to Twitter to express their displeasure with one of the lowest-scoring parts of the board in recent memory, claiming that 'fellow kids' did not text like that. One fan wrote, "Sry but no one uses those texting abbreviations #Jeopardy," while another fan wrote, "Didn’t expect to be missing Ryan just minutes in, but here we are."

Other fans who felt the texts were made up wrote, "none of these texting abbreviations are real," and another wrote, "I'm pretty sure those texting acronyms were made up."

Final Jeopardy was equally surprising to fans, as no one was able to figure it out in an overall "terrible" first game since crowd favorite Ryan was eliminated. The final clue's category was "Writers Old & New," and it called for a specific 2013 novel. "Twilight - New Moon," Michael scrawled on the middle podium, perhaps as a joke. A Twitter user slammed the video and wrote, "Today may be the worst Final Jeopardy clue in the history of the program. It is as bad as Mayim Bialik is. No one got it."

Another slam was directed at Mayim's habit of looking down at the cue cards after each response, one user said "Mayim's delay on right or wrong leaves me, and the contestants clutching their pearls. #Jeopardy". Another user wrote, "So, when is Mayim done hosting?"