‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Blast Show’s Inconsistent Rulings

Jeopardy! has gained a reputation this year for inconsistent rulings. In some cases, players lose because the show chooses to implement rules they ignored in previous shows. Other times, players win because the show ignores rules that eliminated players earlier in the season. Fans believe it happened again with Davey Morrison.

Here is what happened and why fans are mad.

Jeopardy! Inconsistent Rules Hurts Davey Morrison

This last week was the end of the season for Jeopardy! The show will remain on hiatus until the new season starts in September. However, fans head into the break thinking of all the inconsistent moments that have happened this year. This moment came when one struct ruling caused a huge $4,000 score swing in the game.
Davey Morrison on Jeopardy! | YouTube
The clue was “Cormac McCarthy’s saga of an aged, female chicken caught up in a world of drugs & killers.”  The category was “Novel Change a Letter.” Davey said, “What is: No Country for Old Hens,” before changing it to “Hen” right as Ken Jennings ruled that he was incorrect. The book was titled “No Country for Old Men,” so it had to remain singular for the title to be correct.

Three-day champ Neilesh then buzzed in and said, “What is: No Country for Old Hen,” and got it right. This means that Neilesh pretty much just said what Davey had and got the win. Yet, Davey lost the money. Fans on social media were not happy:

The contestant who answered “No Country for Old Hens” and changed it to “hen” was struck down even though he corrected his answer
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

A Previous Jeopardy! Plural Wrong Question

Most fans understood that it ended up wrong because Davey gave the incorrect answer before he realized his error and tried to rectify it. However, as one person pointed out, when another contestant changed their answer, their first choice wasn’t accepted. It is yet another inconsistent ruling for the show.

Jeopardy! had a moment earlier in the season where, just like Davey, a player gave an answer but got it wrong for adding an “S.” In this case, Kelly Proulx had the clue, “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.”

She answered, “What is Bridalveil Falls?” That was wrong because the answer was “What is Bridalveil Fall?” However, since the category was “Waterfalls” with an “s,” many fans wondered why it was wrong.

What are your thoughts on the inconsistency of rules on Jeopardy!? Do you think the show needs to keep things the same in every case? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.