'Jeopardy' fans left fume as controversial ruling on James Bond answer robs champion of win
Seven-day champion Paolo Pasco also ended up losing his crown to Steven Olsen in the episode.
Sept. 27 2025, Published 9:45 a.m. ET
"Jeopardy!" contestants often face flak for their lack of knowledge about certain movies and pop culture icons. But sometimes, the show's producers and the host, Ken Jennings, also mess up. Over the years, the show has featured several moments that are a matter of contention among fans. Most recently, an answer related to James Bond left a lot of fans fuming on social media.
During the episode, Paolo Pasco was against Steven Olson and Hebah Uddin, according to a TV Insider report. At the time, Pasco had won seven straight games and had earned a whopping seven-day total of $195,717. He was on track to win an eighth game and had the lead for the first 15 clues. However, things changed by the end of the episode, and one of the clues responsible for that was related to James Bond.
The clue read, “From an N64 game: ‘Recover the pirate helicopter & get to the bottom of this. You are licensed to kill.'” Pasco answered the question, “What is GoldenEye?” However, this was not deemed correct. Olson buzzed in next and answered, “What is 007 GoldenEye?” Unfortunately, even that was considered incorrect. The correct answer was then revealed, and it made fans lose their cool.
“It pains me to say this because you were so close,” host Ken Jennings said. “GoldenEye is the movie, GoldenEye 007 is the game.” Fans of the show took to Reddit to voice their disappointment as they believed the contestants’ answers should have been accepted. “Y'all got robbed on that GoldenEye clue,” one fan commented. “Terrible ruling, and it appears contradictory to show prior use,” quipped another.
“"GoldenEye" absolutely should have been accepted, and "007 GoldenEye" probably should have been too. On the box art, the way the logo is stylized doesn't clearly indicate whether the 007 is supposed to come before or after GoldenEye, and on the title screen, there's no 007 at all; the in-game name of the game is just GoldenEye,” one observant viewer wrote.
By this point, Olson was only $400 behind Pasco, who had $4,000 in the purse. The former then found the first Daily Double in Double Jeopardy, and there was no turning back from there. As the episode went on, Pasco’s dreams of an eighth straight win came crashing down as Olson took a dominant lead. By the end of the episode, he had won $19,601, beating the seven-day champion, who had accumulated $17,401.
Olson’s fantastic form carried into his second day on the show as he became a two-day winner after winning $26,804. That brought his two-day total up to $46,406. He will be hoping for a long streak, much like Pasco had before him.
More on Market Realist