‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Express Frustration Over ‘Poorly Worded’ Clue

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Die-hard Jeopardy! fans do not take kindly to ambiguous clues.

This was obvious in the instance of an $800 clue from the Monday, September 16 episode. Under the category, “1964 Firsts,” the clue in question read, “The first courtroom verdict on live network TV was when this assassin’s assassin was found guilty & sentenced in Dallas.”

Returning champion Evan Suttell — who was playing against Aiden Orzech, a teacher from Thornhill, Ontario, and Sam Watson, a pharmacy software salesman from Westwood, Kansas — rang in correctly with “Ruby” as his answer, for “Jack Ruby.”

Ken Jennings Though the nonprofit program assistant from Lakewood, Ohio — who returned with a one-day total of $20,200 — secured the points, many Jeopardy! fans on Reddit and X (formerly known as Twitter) were calling foul.

“The $800 clue for 1964 Firsts is poorly worded. It could mean ‘this assassin of an assassin’ [Jack Ruby] or ‘the assassin of this assassin’ [Lee Oswald],” one person wrote in a Reddit Jeopardy! discussion thread.

'Jeopardy!' Contestant Called Out Over Answer

Others agreed, suggesting that they would have had to award points if someone had rung in with the answer “Lee Oswald.” However, Suttell was the only one to ring in for the question, and his answer was Ruby. Another fan pointed out that host Ken Jennings’ delivery of the clue made it clear to him what the answer had to be.

“Listening to it again, I think Ken was able to emphasize it in such a way that made it clear which one they were looking for: this assassin’s assassin,” the Reddit user wrote.

However, they did acknowledge that “the clue should be able to stand on its own,” so it should have been rewritten so that what they were really looking for was actually clear.

In the end, the confusion did not seem to detract from the gameplay, as it was Orzech who ended up winning with a total of $27,599.