‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Accuse Contestant of ‘Swaying’ Ken Jennings in Show Controversy (VIDEO)

Many Jeopardy! viewers found it questionable that reigning champ Rishabh Wuppalapati’s scribbled Final Jeopardy response was accepted on Wednesday, October 16. But fanning the flames was that, before it was announced as up to snuff, he added commentary to the ruling.

The sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania entered the neck-and-neck last round with $10,400 while Rachel Cassidy, an associate professor from Rhode Island, was right behind with $10,100. Jay Eversman, an environmental lawyer from Missouri, trailed with $4,800.

The “College Towns” clue was, “2 schools in the Southeastern Conference are located in cities with this same name but in different “states.” The correct answer was “Columbia.”

Both Cassidy and Wuppalapati (who changed his answer last second) were ruled correct, the latter sealing victory by $300 with $20,201 (and a two-day total of $42,402).

Wuppalapati’s response, of course, came off as “illegible” to many fans, reading more like “Cdumlag” than “Columbia.” As it was displayed, he also stated what he wrote to Ken Jennings. “Columbia,” he told the host. “I can read every letter,” Jennings subsequently shared, bringing him the win.

Wuppalapati’s comment rubbed many fans the wrong way, who took to social media to debate whether it was the extra push he needed. Others argued that, legible enough or not, no player should be allowed to clarify what they wrote or interject with anything of consequence for that matter, during a ruling, making a (literally) messy situation much worse.

“Am I wrong to be annoyed that Rishabh spoke his scribbled answer before Ken had a chance to try and decipher it? Some other people had similarly illegibly scrawled answers rejected,” one Facebook user began a post in a Jeopardy! fan group.

“‘Wrong’? No, but the fact is, the judges get the say,” pointed out another. “Not Ken. THEY decided it was good. I thought it was a very iffy call.”

A third replied: “Put it this way. If you didn’t know what that correct answer was, if you hadn’t even heard the question, but just were shown what he wrote, would you have been able to read the one key word?”

“No, you’re not wrong. My husband and I said the same thing,” wrote a fourth.

“I think him saying “I wrote Columbia” before the answer was revealed affected Ken’s decision honestly,” wrote a fifth in the Reddit thread for the episode. “Because once he said that you could kind of see what he was writing, but had Ken had to make it out on his own? I don’t know if it would have counted.”

“Anyone who announces what they wrote in FJ before their answer is judged or they are asked should be automatically disqualified, in my view,” acused a fifth. “To a lay person, it looks like the contestant is trying to sway the judging (who most probably think is Ken, primarily). I have more to say, but I’ll leave it at that, because my view of the contestant who pulled that stunt might cloud my judgment a bit.”

One more Redditor fairly pointed out that the ruling was likely already made before Wuppalapati shared what he wrote.

“It’s really not that deep since the judging is determined before the responses are shown to the audience. Felt like he was just nervous and wanted to clarify what it was he wrote since he didn’t know what the ruling was yet.”

Other fans argued that with this being just the latest instance of a controversial ruling over handwriting (see “Harriet Tubma-“, or Ben Chan’s nine-day streak-ending “Benedict,”) it’s due time the quiz show modernizes to keyboards for Final Jeopardy for everyone’s sake.