‘Jeopardy!’ Host Ken Jennings Apologizes to Contestant for Sexist Clue: ‘A Little Problematic’

CELEBRITY JEOPARDY! - "Quarterfinal #1: Mark Duplass, Emily Hampshire and Utkarsh Ambudkar" - On the season premiere of "Celebrity Jeopardy!," stars Mark Duplass ("The Morning Show"), Emily Hampshire ("Schitt's Creek") and Utkarsh Ambudkar ("Ghosts") compete for the chance to win the grand prize of $1 million for the charity of their choice. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 27 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on ABC. (Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images) KEN JENNINGS

Ken Jennings on ‘Jeopardy!’ Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images

Last night’s episode of Jeopardy! used a dated, sexist clue, leading host Ken Jennings to apologize to a female contestant.

During the category Complete the Rhyming Phrase, the three contestants were given the phrase, “Men seldom make passes at …” The answer was: ” … girls who wear glasses.” Returning champion Will Wallace answered, but another contestant, Heather Ryan, was wearing glasses herself.

After acknowledging that Wallace had the correct answer, Jennings admitted that the phrase, coined by Dorothy Parker, didn’t hold up. “A little problematic — sorry, Heather,” Jennings said. Wallace then came to his fellow player’s defense and added, “Very.”

Although it was a brief moment on the game show, fans online responded with understandable ire. “Frankly, I don’t need to hear Ken read an obviously outdated and inappropriate clue and then call it ‘problematic,’” a viewer wrote in the Reddit thread for the episode. “Maybe he can use his position to get it switched out before it goes out over the air.”

 

“Still angry about this,” another fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “She’s used her intelligence to get on here, only to be insulted by a sexist and rude comment.”