Jeopardy! Fans Outraged Over ‘Lenient’ Season Finale Ruling – Stunned as Controversial Answer Gets Accepted After Tougher Calls

Jeopardy! fans call out ‘lenient’ ruling on season finale and are ‘shocked answer was accepted’ after harsher calls

JEOPARDY! fans have lost sleep over what they’ve branded an overly lax ruling on a Daylight Saving Time clue.

The latest debatable show moment occurred during the Season 40 finale last Friday, July 29.

Steve Babish was ruled correct with his response ‘What is: Daylight Savings Time?’Credit: Jeopardy!

Fans took to social media arguing the correct term is ‘Saving’ with no ‘S’Credit: Jeopardy!

Ken Jennings and the judges have come under fire for rulings as of late, especially on pluralsCredit: Jeopardy!
The Double Jeopardy! round clue was for $800 and was in the category “Tick Tock.”

The clue showed an image of gentlemen standing by a clock as Ken Jennings read, “The mysteriously named Ohio Clock has stood in the U.S. Senate for two centuries; here, it’s adjusted for this for the first time in 1918.”

Steve Babish from San Jose, California, buzzed in with, “What is Daylight Savings Time?” and the host ruled him correct.

The ruling didn’t impact the game, as Rachel Bradley from Greenbelt, Maryland, was the only player to correctly answer Final Jeopardy!, winning $23,597.

‘SURPRISED IT WAS ACCEPTED!’

However, fans took to social media to call out the judges because many argued the term is technically “Saving” with no “S.”

One Facebook user wrote, “I’m wondering why they accepted “Daylight Savings Time,” when it’s actually “Daylight Saving Time.”

“I thought the same thing. The answer was incorrect, even though so many people say it incorrectly. I was surprised,” wrote another.

“Yes, the inconsistency is a bit much,” cried a third.

“I am surprised Daylight Savings was accepted. There is no s at the end of Saving,” one fan wrote in a Reddit thread about the game.

“Was hoping to see this level of nitpicking,” joked a second on the admittedly hair-splitting debate.

“Daylight saving time is also referred to daylight savings time,” pointed out a third.

Still others weren’t satisfied, “Came here looking to see if anyone else caught that. Hmmm…..” wrote a fourth Redditor.

“I was shocked that Ken accepted it!!!” wrote a fifth.

‘This is a running gag on Veep – I was surprised it was accepted,” wrote a sixth.

BUT THAT DIDN’T FLY?

The ruling comes after what fans have perceived as some ruthless judgment calls as of late.

Earlier this month, a contestant suffered a $4000 score swing over an additional “S” – despite trying to correct himself.

The Double Jeopardy! round clue was for $2000 and in the category “Novel Change a Letter,” and read, “Cormac McCarthy’s saga of an aged female chicken caught up in a world of drugs & killers.”

Davey Morrison (who’d win the game) rang in with “What is No Country for Old Hens.”

Ken swiftly ruled, “No,” right as Davey corrected himself to say “Hen.”

Davey looked frustrated as another player got the $2000 clue instead by repeating Davey’s answer in full: “No Country for Old Hen.”

Jeopardy! rules stipulate that once a host rules a player is incorrect, they can’t change their response.

That said, some fans said Davey should have been given it and that the judges have gotten more strict.

“Actually laughed about No Country for Old Hen. It’s a shame about the added S. Ha!” one Redditor began a comment thread.

“Davey’s errant “-s” on that clue led to a 4,000 score swing–if Davey had instead gotten it right, all else being equal, he would have had the lead going into FJ,” wrote another.

“Fortunately for Davey, he was still able to win in FJ, because that would’ve been quite a bitter pill to swallow if “hens” had been the difference between winning and losing.”

A third wrote, “Jeopardy judges deserves some backlash for that,” which got 11 downvotes.

Other fans argued, “No, the ruling was totally fair–I realized Davey’s response was wrong at the same moment Ken did.”

They admitted, “But it would have really sucked for Davey if he had lost the game because of that.”

WATERFALLS RULING GETS NO TLC

Additionally, and ironically enough, another player was recently denied a response over a single additional “S”.

Returning champ Kelly Proulx answered the $2,000 clue in the Double Jeopardy category “Waterfalls.”

The clue was, “A Yosemite fall with a wispy ribbon of water that flutters in the air like a diaphanous cloth bears the name of this marital wear.”

As fans may know, the one-day winner responded with, “What is Bridalveil Falls?”

Ken and the judges determined her answer was incorrect because of the errant “S”.

“No, I’m sorry,” Ken said. “It’s actually Bridalveil Fall, so we couldn’t take that. It is: ‘What is a Bridalveil?'”

“The category was ‘Waterfalls’! What’s wrong with ‘Bridal Veil Falls’?” one annoyed viewer wrote on X. “I screamed ‘You B*****d’ at the screen.”

Another wrote, “ready to individually fight the #Jeopardy judges for ruling ‘Bridalveil Falls’ wrong because of the extra “s” that was not germane to the clue.”

“I typically give long and wide deference to the judges, but f–k the judges for that ruling. There is nothing pinning the clue to ‘fall,’ so she got the required information correct. That was positively disgusting,” wrote a third over on Reddit.

“Yeesh that’s a brutal call on the last clue,” a fourth user wrote.