Jeopardy! fans accuse show of allowing another 'incorrect' response (2024)

JEOPARDY! fans have torn into the iconic game show for a calendar-based ruling that gave them pause.

On Monday's episode, champ Isaac Hirsch came up with the desired answer to a clue but it seemed to some viewers like a mistake.

Reigning champ Isaac, who'd win his ninth game for $215,390 total, faced Brenna Sniatecki and James Hayakawa.

The $800 Jeopardy! round clue was, "On this type of schedule, you usually get paid on the 1st & 15th."

James was ruled incorrect with, "What is a month?"

Isaac buzzed in with the correct response, answering, "What is bi-monthly?"

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After a slight pause, Ken Jennings ruled, "'Bi-monthly' is correct, yes Isaac."

'BI-MONTHLY?'

Fans took to social media in confusion, saying the game show mistakenly ruled Isaac correct.

Many thought the term for getting paid once every two weeks was "semi-monthly" or "bi-weekly."

"Hey @Jeopardy getting paid on the 1st and the 15th isn’t bi-monthly. It’s semi-monthly! Shouldn't it be bi-weekly?" one X user wrote.

"Are we going to talk about 'bi-monthly'?" another Redditor asked in a game thread.

"Yeah, I had that same bi-monthly vs semi-monthly twitch," wrote a third.

"But bi-monthly means both twice a month and every two months while semi-monthly only means twice a month," they added.

"I agree that historically bi-monthly only meant every two months, but continual mis-use as twice a month has morphed its meaning to include the second meaning."

A fourth agreed, "I thought the correct response would have been bi-weekly. That’s what I’ve always called that paycheck format.

"I suppose bi-monthly technically can mean that too, I’ve just never heard anyone say it. Until today."

Another fan pointed out the category was "To The Nth power" so Isaac's response fit the prompt.

"The category required "nth" in the answer," they wrote.

To which one more replied, "But that wasn't what the clue was about. The clue was about twice monthly."

The confusion likely stemmed from the fact that "bi-monthly" is most commonly used to refer to something that happens every two months but has two meanings.

Bi-monthly "can referto something happening 'every two months'or 'twice a month,'" per a Dictionary.com blog entry.

"Yep, bimonthly has, fittingly enough, two meanings."

WATERFALLS RULING GETS NO TLC

This comes after a string of headline-making rulings and show moments that drew ire from loyal fans.

Last week, Ken stopped the show mid-game to change the scores an astounding four times.

And earlier this month, controversy ensued over aruling in which a player was denied a response over a single letter.

Returning champ Kelly Proulx answered the $2,000 clue in the Double Jeopardy category "Waterfalls."

The clue was, “A Yosemite fall with a wispy ribbon of water that flutters in the air like a diaphanous cloth bears the name of this marital wear."

As fans may know, the one-day winner responded with, "What is Bridalveil Falls?"

Ken and the judges determined her answer was incorrect because of the S.

"No, I'm sorry," Ken said. "It's actually Bridalveil Fall, so we couldn't take that. It is: 'What is a Bridalveil?'"

Fans were outraged at what they perceived as a nitpicky rule, and several took to social media to criticize the host.

"The category was 'Waterfalls'! What's wrong with 'Bridal Veil Falls'?" one irritated viewer wrote on X. "I screamed 'You B*****d' at the screen."

Another was "ready to individually fight the #Jeopardy judges for ruling 'Bridalveil Falls' wrong because of the extra "s" that was not germane to the clue."

“I typically give long and wide deference to the judges, but f–k the judges for that ruling. There is nothing pinning the clue to ‘fall,’ so she got the required information correct. That was positively disgusting," wrote a third over on Reddit.

“Yeesh that’s a brutal call on the last clue,” a fourth user wrote.

“That ruling was garbage,” a fifth bluntly wrote.

Another X user wrote, "@Jeopardy just cheated champion Kelly by not accepting Bridal Veil Falls because it's actually 'Fall'. "But they accepted 'larynx' for the larynx. Make it make sense."

As that last user noted, just two games earlier, the judges accepted theincorrect pronunciation of the larynx.

Others defended that Kelly was in the wrong with "falls," so the ruling was fair game if quite ruthless.

'VERY HARSH,' KEN ADMITS

In a post-game chat that didn't air on the show but was shared on the show's podcast,Ken apologized to Kelly.

"Sadly, 'Bridavail Falls' with the ‘S,’” he told her in the clip from the end of the episode.

“You know, it turned out no one knew [Final Jeopardy was] 'Mary Queen of Scotts,' so it didn’t matter.

"I’m glad it didn’t hinge on my very harsh ruling on the ‘S.'"

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Isaac will go for his 10th win on Tuesday's episode which would make him a super-champion- quite the rare feat.

Jeopardy! airs at 7 pm ET - check your local listings.