Jeopardy! fans debate ‘frustrating’ ruling against new champ Davey Morrison and if judges are being ‘consistent’

JEOPARDY! fans were left with ruffled feathers over a strict, if not debatable, ruling over what turned into a crucial clue on Wednesday night.

Fans realized the $4000 score swing nearly cost the current champ Davey Morrison ever winning.

New champ Davey Morrison rang in on this $2000 ‘Novel Change a Letter’ clueCredit: ABC

He said, ‘What is: No Country for Old Hens’ fixing it to ‘hen’ right as Ken Jennings ruledCredit: ABC

Fans were ‘frustrated’ over the $4000 score swing in player Neilesh’s favor (left)Credit: ABC
The Double Jeopardy! round clue was for $2000 and in the category “Novel Change a Letter.”

It was “Cormac McCarthy’s saga of an aged female chicken caught up in a world of drugs & killers.”

Davey rang in with “What is No Country for Old Hens.”

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

Davey looked frustrated as then-three-day champ Neilesh 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, fans discussed the ruling, some saying Davey should have been given it and that the judges have gotten more strict.

FANS DEBATE ‘HEN’ RULING

“The contestant who answered “No Country for Old Hens” and changed it to “hen” was struck down even though he corrected his answer,” one fan posted on Facebook.

“Not too long ago, a contestant gave a correct answer but then added an s to the word and was struck down because he changed his answer to the wrong one. Which way is it? They can’t have it both ways. Frustrating.”

Another fumed, “They don’t seem to be consistent!”

A third argued, “Ken already ruled that it was incorrect. Contestants need to say correct answer before Ken rules on it.”

Over on Reddit, fans discussed the ruling on the admittedly punny clue as well and were glad it didn’t impact the results of the game.

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

“Davey’s errant “-s” on that clue led to a 4,000 score swing between him and Neilesh (since Neilesh got the rebound)–if Davey had instead gotten it right, all else being equal, he would have had the lead going into FJ at 14,800 to Neilesh’s 13,400,” 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.”

Neilesh to Davey since he was the only one correct in Final Jeopardy, but if Davey had been incorrect in Final, the game would have come down to the “Hen” ruling.

Davey won his second game on Thursday’s episode making him a two-day champ with $29,012 total.

WATERFALLS RULING GETS NO TLC

Earlier this month, controversy poured in over a ruling in which a player was denied a response over a single letter.

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 bothered 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.

Others pointed out that two games earlier, the judges accepted the incorrect pronunciation of the larynx- allowing “lar-nyx.”

Another X user wrote, “@Jeopardy just cheated champion Kelly by not accepting Bridal Veil Falls because it’s actually ‘Fall’. “But they accepted ‘larynx’ for the larynx. Make it make sense.”