'Jeopardy' fans furious over 'petty' ruling that ended contestants 9-day winning streak
LOS ANGELES - "Jeopardy" fans are angry on behalf of nine-day champion Ben Chan after a spelling error caused his winning streak to come to an end.
On Tuesday night’s episode, Chan reached the Final Jeopardy category after a rocky start with a Daily Double loss that put him close with his opponents, Lynn Di Vito and Danny Lesserman.
The category was "Shakespeare’s Characters," and the clue was "Both of the names of these 2 lovers in a Shakespeare play come from Latin words for 'blessed.'"
The answer is Beatrice and Benedick from "Much Ado About Nothing."
None of the contestants got it right, but Chan was achingly close. He wrote "Beatrice and Benedict," an answer deemed incorrect because of the misspelling of the latter character's name.
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Chan bet $12,201 of his $17,400, leaving him with $5,199, while his competitor Di Vito wound up with $11,800, ending the Green Bay, Wisconsin, resident’s reign.
Fans were angry online, finding the ruling to be too critical.
"This kind of spelling-related neg-bait is a lousy final Jeopardy! question. That's my complaint," wrote one fan.
"Since when does being off by one letter count in final jep? There's no other character he could have meant," questioned another.
"I am in disbelief & extremely disappointed with Jeopardy. Ben Chan is cut out of the game for one letter wrong spelling? Ben was the only one who had the answer. The winner did not even know any of the answer," said a third.
Another person commented, "I can’t believe @Jeopardy made a contestant lose for writing ‘Beatrice and Benedict’ instead of ‘Benedick.’ I’m not even that petty, and I’m a Shakespeare professor."
Image via Jeopardy.com Media Center
Chan reportedly addressed some of the concerns on the game show’s Reddit page.
"The character's name is Benedick. As Ken (presciently) noted on my first episode, there is no partial credit on Jeopardy! (Yes, I was sooo close!)," he apparently wrote under the username "JeopardyBenBen."
"The 'Benedict' misspelling is common, and it worked its way onto a couple of my flashcards," he added.
Despite the loss, Chan still walked away with $252,600 and an invitation to compete in the Tournament of Champions.