'Jeopardy' player gets the answer right — but still loses because he forgot to add one simple word
Although the word did make a lot of difference, some fans felt that the decision was ridiculous.
July 13 2025, Published 8:45 a.m. ET
It might seem that knowledge about history and trivia is enough to win on "Jeopardy!," but there's more to it, as contestants need to stay sharp and pay attention to every detail. Each word counts when only the correctly phrased answer is accepted on the show. A player named Scott found this out the hard way when he missed out on stretching his lead by $400, for not added the word "The" to his answer.
Scott was competing against Vince and Ashley, both of whom were trailing behind him. As the show moved to the special category, "DC Universe with James Gunn," the writer, director and co-CEO of D.C. Studios reading out the clues. Scott had $6,200 in the bank, while Vince who had $2,400 in the bank chose the category for Gunn to read the first clue.
Showing up on the screen, Gunn narrated the clue, "I went online and searched. What's the dumbest DC character of all time? And I found a character who first appeared in Detective Comics number 300 named Polka-dot Man. I loved him so much that I made him part of my rogues’ gallery in this 2021 movie."
Scott pressed the buzzer first and answered with "What is Suicide Squad?" While the answer was correct, the host Ken Jennings told Scott that it was incorrect. He then asked if any of the other two contestants wanted to have a go but none of them moved a muscle as they too weren't sure why Scott's answer was incorrect.
Finally, Jennings cleared the air by explaining that, "Unfortunately, this was 'The Suicide Squad', Scott. Two different movies." As it turns out, the show wasn't being unfair, as a single word did make a difference.
In the D.C. Universe, there are two movies featuring the rogue squad, and there is only one difference in their titles. The first movie which released in 2016, is called "Suicide Squad" and the second movie mentioned in the clue is titled "The Suicide Squad". Thus, Scott essentially guessed the wrong answer and it wasn't a technical miss.
However, the viewers thought it was ridiculous as the names were confusing. "Did the judges come back and okay the answer 'Suicide Squad'? I feel they've been lenient about things way further off in the past. Especially considering it's a $400 clue.." asked @zurb4125.
Meanwhile, another viewer joked that it wasn't fair to name the two movies so similar. "Movie Executive #1: We already have a movie called 'Suicide Squad', so what should we call the new one we're making?' Movie Executive #2, after finishing his third martini at lunch: 'We could just put the word The in front of it, surely that won't cause any confusion later.' Movie Executive #1: Genius! That's why they pay us those seven-figure salaries. Let's take the rest of the day off and go play golf,'" @1GrilledFoot wrote.
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