Jeopardy! fans call out Ken Jennings’ ‘disrespectful’ mistake that Alex Trebek ‘wouldn’t have made’ while giving clue

JEOPARDY! host Ken Jennings has been slammed for a major pronunciation error on the show.

Ken, 50, was called out for mispronouncing a clue during Monday’s Double Jeopardy! round.

Ken Jennings enraged fans after he failed to properly pronounce a clue on MondayCredit: NBC

Ken dropped a clue about Taal Lake in the Philippines, but the contestants drew a blankCredit: NBC
In the blunder, Ken asked the contestants about bodies of water, searching for an answer in the Philippines.

“An active volcano lies within this country‘s Taal Lake, which itself occupies a caldera,” he said.

None of the three contestants buzzed in to answer, with the television host eventually clarifying, “In the Philippines.”

On Reddit, fans were quick to explain the answer Ken was looking for, but also picked up on his mispronunciation of the lake itself.

“The clue about the Philippines refers to Volcano Island, in Taal Lake. The island itself has a lake, Main Crater Lake, which has an island named Vulcan Point, making it an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island,” one person said.

“Wish Ken learned the correct way to pronounce Taal,” another blasted in response.

“Ken mispronounced it as tall, not ta-al, two syllables,” explained a second social media user.

“Yeah kinda disrespectful Trebek wouldn’t have done that,” wrote a third, referring to Ken’s predecessor Alex Trebek.

Alex hosted Jeopardy! from 1984 up until his death at the age of 80 in 2020.

KEN YOU NOT?

While viewers at home criticized Ken, the television host recently revealed his own criticism of contestants.

Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings rejects player’s final response after he leaves out one letter in brutal moment
On the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, Ken opened up about getting mean with players when they make one common mistake.

“The rules are actually different in the first and second rounds,” he shared, revealing that he gets stricter as the game progresses if contestants forget to prefix their answers with phrases.

“In the first round, I get to remind them very sternly. I say, ‘Yes, but please remember your phrases.’

“In the second round, I might give them a second to figure it out and then I have to rule against them and say, ‘Oh, it was Grover Cleveland, but you had to say, ‘What is Grover Cleveland?'”

He jokingly added, “It gets meaner as the game progresses, just like life you will find.”

Jeopardy! Host Timeline

Jeopardy! has had a tumultuous history regarding hosts after the death of the iconic Alex Trebek in 2020. Here are all of the hosts since the game show’s inception in 1964.

Art Fleming – 1964 to 1975, he was the original host of the daytime version of Jeopardy! on NBC.

Alex Trebek – 1984 to 2020, the late, great Alex hosted Jeopardy!’s modern iteration for 36 years until his death from pancreatic cancer.

Guest hosts – 2020 to 2021, Jeopardy! tested out a series of guest hosts for week or two-week stints, including Anderson Cooper, LaVar Burton, and Aaron Rodgers.

Mike Richards – 2021, he was named host for one week before resigning amid controversy. He was the show’s executive producer at the time.

Mayim Bialik – 2021 to 2023, when Mike was announced as the show’s new host, Mayim was chosen to host tournaments and primetime specials.

Mayim and Ken Jennings – 2022 to 2023, 74-time champion Ken (the longest-winning contestant ever) joined Mayim as a guest host and they split hosting duties.

Ken Jennings – 2023 to present. Last December, Mayim announced on Instagram that she would “no longer” host Jeopardy! after a lengthy hiatus, having stood with the writer’s strike, and Ken was named sole host.

Ken now helms all editions of Jeopardy! including Celebrity Jeopardy!, the nightly show, and other primetime specials like Masters.

GET A CLUE

Although Ken admitted that he can lose patience with contestants, some viewers have suggested that his clues are too tough or worded strangely.

Last week, champ Amar Kakirde – who was set to progress to the Tournament of Champions – lost his chance after he bet all of his earnings except $1 and gave an incorrect answer.

“On the 2022 Bicentennial of his birth, the body of this man was exhumed & DNA used to determine his genetic afflictions,” Ken read from the European scientists category.

Amar got the answer wrong, but fans thought he should get a second chance.

“I did not like anything about the clue,” one person wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“I think the contestants deserve a do-over,” wrote a second.