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'Jeopardy!' fans slam game show for 'poorly written' final clue, blame writers for contestants' failure

Many fans were left furious on realizing how clumsily written the Final Jeopardy clue was

CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA: There have been a lot of uncertainties surrounding 'Jeopardy!' as Hollywood grapples with the WGA strike. Added to that was a blunder made by the game show's staff which left many fans furious because of the way it affected the game. 

Many fans believed that the final 'Jeopardy!' clue was written in a way that confused contestants and made them answer incorrectly. They took to Twitter to share their views on how they were disappointed by this silly mistake made by the writing staff. 

What was the Final Jeopardy clue?

The Final Jeopardy clue was from the category of Art History. Host Ken Jennings shared the clue, "At the 1865 Paris Art Salon, the elder of these 2 men said if the younger were successful, it would be 'because his name sounds like mine.'"

It was proven to be a problem when two out of the three contestants lost because they only gave half of the correct answer which was Manet and Monet. First, it was Dileri Johnston who gave the answer Manet to which Jennings said, “The clue said these two men. I’m afraid we needed both, so we can't accept that.” The contestant, who went on to be the champ, James Tyler, responded with just "Monet." It was only Alex Brandon, the previous champ, who gave the whole correct answer but because of his poor performance on the episode, he missed out on the chance to be a champ for longer. 

Fans call clue 'horribly confusing'

Given how two contestants slipped up, many fans were furious with the way the clue was worded. The mention of "the elder" changed the emphasis of the clue, making it hard to figure out what the question actually was. A fan wrote on Twitter, "Horribly confusing Final #Jeopardy clue asked for *the elder* of the two men. The correct question could have been either both men or the elder of them." Another said, "I had to read that Final #Jeopardy clue several times to notice it wanted both names."

People also blamed the writing staff with one tweeting, "Holy s**t! I keep saying the Final #Jeopardy clues keep getting easier, but today’s takes the cake. So easy. However, two of the three contestants either misread or misunderstood the clue and didn’t get the answer right. Everyone involved at @Jeopardy should be ashamed." A fan sympathized with the contestants saying, "The question wasn’t ambiguous but, with the references to individual men, it was clumsy in its wording. Especially considering the pressure on those contestants during Final Jeopardy."

There were others who did not agree with fans who found the clue confusing. One viewer said, "Congrats to James on the win! And BTW: this Final #Jeopardy was written consistently with the show’s long-standing style. Nothing wrong with it — as evidenced by Alex correctly parsing it." Another user joked, "Everyone who thinks today's Final Jeopardy was "confusing" or "misleading" shouldn't be allowed to vote."