'Jeopardy!' fans call out controversial ruling that helped player win despite making a mistake
"Jeopardy!" fans are not just equipped with knowledge of trivia, but they also have sharp instincts to point out problematic verdicts. That's why they were unhappy when contestants Michelle Tsai and Molly Murray faced off in the final round under the "Authors" category. With competition being tight, both of them gave the correct answer, but Tsai got the spelling wrong. However, host Ken Jennings accepted the response and handed her the money. While many cheered the move, some called it out as Tsai won the game by just $1.
Tsai had returned for the second episode of the tournament. The player originally played on May 7 and lost against Dan Moren. She got her second chance on December 23, when she was joined by Molly Murray from New York, New York, and Bob Callen from Lexington, Kentucky.
The game started off with a bummer as the first couple of clues turned out to be a Triple Stumpers. Tsai then mounted a comeback and took the lead on the third clue. She kept stretching her lead and found the Daily Double as well. She soon amassed a lead with $10,800, while Murray trailed behind with $2,800, followed by Callen with $2,200. In Double Jeopardy, Tsai wagered $4,000 for a clue under the "Hitting You With Hard Science" category. Jennings read out the clue, "Latin for 'hair' gives us the name of these blood vessels." She answered with "What are capillary vessels?" which was correct. While she got the money, Jennings interjected that it was just "Capillaries."
In the end, Tsai qualified for Final Jeopardy with $22,800, followed by Murray, who had $13,200. Callen unfortunately didn't qualify as he had -$1,800. The category for the final round was "Authors," and the clue read, “Before his sudden death in 2004, this journalist & author was researching the unsolved assassination of PM Olof Palme.”
The correct answer was “Who was Stieg Larsson?” and Jennings asked Murray to reveal her response first. She got it bang on the money with "Who is Stieg Larson?" and wagered $13,200. This gave her a total of $26,400, which was close to Tsai's total. The host then asked Tsai to reveal the answer, and she had written, "Who is Larsen?" The name was clearly misspelled, but Jennings said, “Yes, misspelled, but we will accept that." Tsai had wagered $3,601, which gave her a total of $24,401, just a dollar more than Murray.
While Tsai celebrated her win, fans took to social media to debate the ruling on the misspelled answer. "They used to be a lot more picky about spelling, but I'm glad they gave it to her," wrote one fan, @4partharmony208, in support of the decision in the comments of the show's YouTube clip.
"Ouch! The show was forced to accept Michelle's spelling, but the two names are pronounced differently in the Swedish language," argued another fan, @istvanfekete1961.
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