‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Are Outraged Over the Change Mayim Bialik Made on the Show
When Ken Jennings recently signed off Jeopardy! and Mayim Bialik took his place at the lectern, viewers voiced their opinions. But now, Jeopardy! fans are much more focused on a different change made on the show.
After returning as Jeopardy! host on January 31, Mayim started pulling double duty on February 8 for the quiz show’s latest special, the National College Championship. Over the past several nights, many folks have watched The Big Bang Theory star lead contestants through the first half of the game and announce commercial breaks by saying: “That brings us to the end of a very back-and-forth Single Jeopardy! round. Double Jeopardy! is up after this.”
In case you missed that, Mayim added the word “single” to create the phrase “Single Jeopardy!” As fans know, players kick off the competition by answering a total of 30 clues in six categories with values from $200 to $1,000. When the board is cleared, it signals that the first part of the show is over and contestants move on to Double Jeopardy!, in which the values are twice the amount as before. The show concludes with one more clue in Final Jeopardy!.
While it might technically be true that the first half of the game could be considered Single Jeopardy!, it isn’t usually called that, and lots of Jeopardy! fans are letting Mayim know on Twitter how upset they are by the modification.
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“There’s no reason hearing Mayim say ‘Single Jeopardy’ should annoy me as much as it does but it makes me irrationally annoyed,” one person wrote. “It’s been driving me nuts! She didn’t do that in the past, did she? Single Jeopardy is NOT a thing!” another added.
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On the other hand, not everyone is bothered by the slight update. “I love Mayim and haven’t even noticed that she says ‘Single Jeopardy.’ I agree that there is no reason why this should annoy you at all, let alone annoy you a lot. Perhaps you need a new hobby?” a follower commented. “I hope Mayim continues to call it single #jeopardy because all the outrage cracks me up,” someone else posted.
According to #Jeopardy Twitter, she started using this new phrase when she returned in late January and continued to say “Single Jeopardy!” in the tournament episodes. It’s not clear whether it was the show that officially changed the language or if it was her own invention. Either way, many Jeopardy! fans are not here for it.
“@Jeopardy If you have renamed the Jeopardy round, ‘single Jeopardy,’ change it back…NOW,” a viewer tweeted.
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