Ken Jennings forced to defend past ‘immoral’ mistake as Jeopardy! contestant takes aim

The host of Jeopardy! is prone to make a few mistakes, too. Ken Jennings admitted he messed up during his time on the show as a contestant, long before his hosting gig

Ken Jennings was reminded of his past mistakes (
Image: Jeopardy!)

Ken Jennings found his own Jeopardy! career as a contestant under fire on Wednesday’s episode.

While chatting with the competitors, one quiz guru, Joey DeSena, confessed to actively shading Ken during his own bar trivia matches. “I have a friend who hosts it. Sometimes, he’s out of town and he asks me to fill in for him, so I have a lot of fun putting together the categories,” he explained.

Joey further noted that his personal favorite category at the pub event is: Questions Ken Jennings Got Wrong on Jeopardy!. The information drop caused Ken to laugh and exclaim: “Oh, wow!”

He immediately became inquisitive, wondering how the teams do at “one upping” him. According to Joey, they do pretty well with the tricky clues, including getting one of Ken’s famous blunders correct. In a now-famous clip, Alex Trebek prompted: “This term for a long-handed gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker.”

Ken was a contestant on the show before he began his hosting responsibilities ( 
Image:
Disney)
Ken quickly responded with: “What is a hoe?” Immediately, Alex told him that he was wrong as the audience laughed off Ken’s eager attempt. Instead, his opponent correctly guessed “rake.”

Joey explained that “more people than you’d think know” the answer which prompted Ken to defend himself. The host said: “Well, yeah, some of them got it easier on YouTube now. When I go that clue, I did not have the advantage of having seen the clip.”

Despite Joey’s shade, he was not victorious for the episode. Instead, Evan Dorey, a data analytics director from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, beat him. Lois Dioro, a Realtor from West Haven, CT, was also a fierce competitor.

She came into the show with her own fun fact: Lois is quite religious. However, she wasn’t referring to the typical type of religion most people might think of. Instead, she said she is a believer in the “Church of Springsteen.” The quiz whiz was asked how often she attends a Bruce Springsteen concert. She said, “I go to as many shows as I can.”

The total fangirl admitted that she stopped counting somewhere in the 60s or 70s. Her first show wasn’t until the 2000s when he came back for the Rising Tour.