LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘Jeopardy!’ is no stranger to controversies. The popular gameshow has given viewers many jaw-dropping moments over the years. Lately, the self-appointed game show “villain,” James Holzhaeur has been wreaking havoc with his social media antics to taunt his competition on ‘Jeopardy!’ Masters but the ongoing show may have found another villain for its viewers. However, it’s not a contestant but the host, Mayim Bialik.
During the May 22 episode of ‘Jeopardy!’ Ben Chan was pitted against Nancy Duran, a marketing copywriter from Stowe, Vermont, and Joe Lasser, an astronautical engineer originally from Colfax, Illinois. Ben who dropped out of the game show in April 2023 due to contracting COVID, had three wins to his name at the time. For now, Ben is on a hot streak and has managed to win nine consecutive games. He’s emerging as a super champion but Bialik may have had a hand in his ninth victory. Her confusing questioning skills may have caused a contestant to answer the questions incorrectly, making her lose the game on the night.
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What did Mayim Bialik do?
Ben started the game by choosing the $800 clue under the category “Book-Pourri." Bialik then read the question out loud, “An almost 12-year-old girl, last name Simon, is mentioned in the title of this classic by Judy Blume.” Nancy buzzed and answered, “What is Margaret?” Bialik quickly resorted to a ‘No’ and Nancy had a deficit of $800. Joe, the other contestant answered What is God, It's Me, Margaret?” which was also incorrect until Ben swooped in after putting the pieces of the puzzle together and answered correctly with, “Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.” The same thing went on with the second question which was for $1000.
The question by Bialik was, “Louis XIV deals with a family 'problem' (well, for Louis, anyway) by giving Philippe the title headwear in this Dumas novel.” While picking up on the part of title headwear from the clue, Nancy answered, “What is The Iron Mask?” which was instantly deemed incorrect and she lost another $1000. Even Ben failed to answer but after a closer analysis, fans realized that Bialik did not emphasize the "this" part of the clues. They felt that Nancy seemed to think the clues were looking for the specifics in the clues and not the book titles as a result. Bialik’s lack of using clear words may have cost Nancy a good head start in the competition and allowed Ben to pick up on the answers that Nancy gave and guess the rest of it correctly.
Fans sympathize with Nancy Duran
Many fans felt that Bialik could have presented her clues that were missed by Nancy with better reads. One fan mentioned, “I feel bad for Nancy, who was twice in the Jeopardy! round responded correctly to the wrong part of the clue.” There was a certain anger towards Bialik as well. “Clearly, it's on the contestants to parse the clues carefully, but Mayim isn't doing them any favors with some of her reads.” “In my opinion, she often doesn't hit the 'this' hard enough ('...THIS classic' or '...THIS Dumas novel') to help make it obvious what the clue is asking for.” In the end, many believed that emphasizing the word “this” would have made Nancy answer all the questions correctly and pose a major threat to Ben’s victorious run on ‘Jeopardy!’
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