‘Jeopardy!’ contestant speaks out about ‘problematic’ clue Ken Jennings apologized to her for
A “Jeopardy!” contestant is addressing the “problematic” clue given on the show’s Oct. 28 episode, for which host Ken Jennings apologized.
Heather Ryan, who came in second by just $1, spoke to Pipe Dream,the student-run newspaper at Binghamton University in New York, on Wednesday to share her thoughts about the clue.
The clue from the category “Complete the Rhyming Phrase” read, “Men seldom make passes at…” To which the correct question was “Who are girls who wear glasses?”
Ryan, the only female competitor on the episode, happened to be wearing glasses.
Jennings read the clue with a slightly awkward tone, then immediately apologized to Ryan after it was answered.
“Yeah, a little problematic,” he said. “Sorry, Heather.”
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Will Wallace, who buzzed in first, agreed that it was “very” problematic.
“I think it made everybody in the audience and onstage, and Ken Jennings, too, a little uncomfortable,” Ryan told the paper. “It was like, ‘Oh, that was unexpected.'”
She went on to suggest, “Maybe we choose better rhyming phrases in 2024.”
“Unfortunately, there are still girls who are [in] middle school, and they don’t want to wear their glasses, and they’re losing out on their education,” she said. “So I think it’s much better to be able to see than anything else.”
Other than that awkward moment, Ryan said, the show was “very fun” to be a part of.
“I had a great time,” she said. “Everybody there was very welcoming. It’s such a part of American culture that I definitely wanted to go on when I got the call for it.”
“It’s just a very special thing to play a small role in this big part,” she added. “It’s been running for 40 years, and so I got to play my part in it.”
