‘Jeopardy’ Fans Launch Complaints Over ‘Really Awkward’ Premiere Episode

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Jeopardy! fans were thrilled when the game show returned for its 41st season on Monday, Sept. 9—or rather, they should have been. Unfortunately, not all viewers were happy with the season premiere.

Hosted by Ken Jennings, the episode featured returning champion Rachel Bradley, a Maryland-based ESL instructor, competing against Amanda White, a strategy consultant from Seattle, Washington, and Adam Reiffen, a Naval officer from San Diego, California. At the end of the last season, Bradley had amassed $23,597 in winnings.

Bradley provided one of the most cringeworthy moments of the evening with her response to the question about who the father was in Little Orphan Annie.

“Who is Sugar Daddy?” Bradley asked. (The actual answer, of course, is Daddy Warbucks.)

In a Reddit thread devoted to the episode, Jeopardy! fans couldn’t help but have a little fun with Bradley’s mistake.

“It wouldn’t have been such a hard-knock life,” joked one person.

“Well, in some ways…” quipped another.

“Really awkward episode lol,” commented a third Redditor.

Related: 5 Major Changes Coming to ‘Jeopardy!’

Another question about which planet is the coldest (Uranus) also caused a bit of discomfort among the contestants.

“No one wanted to say it,” pointed out one commenter.

“Yeah I was waiting for ‘what is your Uranus Ken!'” complained another.

Fans were particularly frustrated when the broadcast was interrupted during Final Jeopardy! in some areas by a local news report about the death of James Earl Jones.

“Watching this now. Final jeopardy, about to find out who answered correctly. They Broke in with a special news report, that they had already teased with during the break. It was about James Earl Jones demise. RIP, but they already told us during the commercial,” one Redditor wrote.

“I checked my watch and they were able to bring us the news of his passing a whopping three minutes earlier than if they mentioned it on the evening news. He was a legend of incredible talent, but this seemed like an overreaction,” pointed out another viewer.

As it turned out, Reiffen was the only contestant to answer the Final Jeopardy! clue, ending the game with a total winnings of $16,001.