‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Debate Ken Jennings’ ‘Bad’ Call & Confusing Final Jeopardy! Clue

Jeopardy!, Inc.

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the October 7 episode of Jeopardy!]

It’s not uncommon for Jeopardy! fans to find reasons to debate a call or the way a clue is worded, and in the latest episode, which aired on Monday (October 7) night, both happened.

Returning champ Mark Fitzpatrick, a content manager from Riverside, Connecticut, with a one-day total of $30,401, faced off against Amanda Prusila, a communications advisor from Ottawa, Ontario, and Daniel Gately, a teacher from Tucson, Arizona. Fitzpatrick led at every break, eventually going into Final Jeopardy! with a runaway game ($23,400 to Gately’s $4,200 and Prusila’s $600).

During the game, there were multiple instances in which host Ken Jennings asked for a contestant to be “more specific” with an answer—before one time that fans expected him to say the same to Fitzpatrick and he didn’t. The $1200 clue under National Historical Parks read, “The Hereford cattle on the ranch of this president’s historical national park are descended from his registered herd.” Fitzpatrick answered with “Who is Johnson?” and Jennings told him, “Yes, LBJ’s right.” But at least one fan wasn’t happy about that.

“Bad decision by Ken to rule ‘Johnson’ correct on NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARKS $1200 without a ‘be more specific’ prompt — there were two Presidents with that surname, after all,” one viewer wrote on the Reddit thread for the episode, referring to Lyndon B. Johnson and Andrew Johnson. Another chimed in in response with, “From what I can tell, this is now standard practice. Might be a Davies thing.”

But as one person pointed out, “I get we had two presidents named Johnson, but a cattle ranch is pretty obviously LBJ so let’s not waste time on a BMS.”

Fans were also a bit miffed by the Final Jeopardy clue. In Brand Names, it read, “In 1886 this brand’s bookkeeper came up with its name & flowing script logo, saying, ‘the two Cs would look well in advertising.’” The person who put together the Reddit thread said it was “astonishingly” a triple stumper; Fitzpatrick and Prusila guessed Coco Chanel, while Gately wrote down Currier. The correct answer was Coca-Cola. Fitzpatrick became a two-day champ, adding $20,000 to his total.

Another fan also was shocked by the fact that no one got Final Jeopardy. “Bit of a stunning triple miss on FJ — the only thing I can think of is eliminating Coca Cola because it has 3 C’s, but that doesn’t hold up with the Coco Chanel guess. Either way, pretty dominant win for Mark,” the person wrote. The wording bothered another viewer, who explained, “I initially thought coca cola but the clue threw me off because I thought the correct answer could only have 2 ‘C’s’.”