LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘Jeopardy!’ is in the news again for an extremely silly reason that has angered the fans. In the May 8 episode of the show, hosted by Mayim Bialik, returning champion Hannah Wilson made her presence felt. There was an unexpected phenomenon that occurred during the show that left all the loyal fans of the show scratching their heads.
Mayim Bialik had three contestants before her -- Juveria Zaheer, Sami Casanova, and Hannah Wilson who fought ruthlessly to rake up as much money as possible during the show. Usually, given the history of the show, if a contestant fails to answer correctly, the pieces are picked up by the other who answers it and the game progresses. However, during this episode, all three contestants made a huge blunder and failed to pronounce a Russian name correctly which made all the loyal Jeopardy fans furious.
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What was the question asked by Mayim Bialik?
Mayim who plays the host directed the question to Sami after she picked the category The Quotable Alex. The question was, “The author and former prisoner that said, 'Socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit'.” Zaheer was asked this question at first and answered it correctly by stating the name of the author as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, but unfortunately, her pronunciation was wrong. Sami made the same mistake as Zaheer while Hanna couldn’t help but get the name wrong herself. The correct pronunciation would have made any of the contestants richer by $1,600.
'It sets an awkward precedent'
After witnessing all the contestants make the same mistake of pronouncing the name wrong, the fans watching the show took to social media to express their extreme disappointment. The Reddit community was buzzing with fans discussing the drama that unfolded on the show and hoping that such tricky clues should be eliminated from the show altogether. "Something rubbed me the wrong way about that Solzhenitsyn clue; the show usually gives some strong leeway for if you can pronounce a response in a reasonable way given a spelling, and all 3 knew who the clue was referring to," one fan said.
"I don't think it mattered in the long run of the game, but it sets an awkward precedent for the future. I'm also curious on if we have any other video examples of Solzhenitsyn as a clue to see if the pronunciation was as strict then.” Another one didn’t back down and went, “A good reason for them to abandon these types of clues. It’s one thing with clues that ask about the translation of common French or Spanish words or idioms, but Russian has several letters that are difficult for Americans. (And I say that as someone who studied Russian). If they want to reference this author, for example, his name should be part of the clue with the correct response having to do with his life."
A few fans believed that Hannah, the returning champion was correct with her pronunciation. Hannah's pronunciation fit within the guideline of being reasonably supported by the spelling, so it should have been accepted.” A fan went further with her explanation and stated, “Hannah said 'Sol-zuh-nee-chen' - I think they negged her because of the last syllable. 'Ts' doesn't make a 'ch' sound. It kind of sounded like she took the pronunciation of 'Nietzsche' for the 3rd and 4th syllables and put an n on the end."
When the show ended, it was the former champion Hanna who went home with $34,200, while Sami finished with just $2, and Zaheer with nothing.