JEOPARDY!'s Ken Jennings allowed a player's "terrible" spelling of a famous cartoon character on Tuesday, fans said.
Viewers largely prefer him, however, and are "infuriated" by the news that he and Mayim Bialik will continue split-hosting.
Ken Jennings, 48, hosted Jeopardy! on Tuesday – he's buttoned up to finish the last week of this exciting season.
It's also the second game that's aired since multiple outlets reported on July 25th the alum and Mayim, 46, would both continue hosting the show.
According to Variety and Deadline, they will continue to split hosting duties on the syndicated game show’s upcoming Season 39.
According to Variety, Sony is eager to boost more versions of the program, and more than one host was needed.
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Ken, Mayim, nor the show have made an official announcement confirming the news.
Many Ken-leaning fans were "infuriated" he wasn't given the role after a smooth go this year.
"You really know how to screw things up," one fan tweeted tonight amid the co-host continuation.
"Ken should be permanent. Period. Mayim is just not quick enough and her mannerism interferes with the flow," they ripped.
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But the upsetting news was sidetracked during the 'tail' end of tonight's game.
Ed Coulson returned as a 1-day champion against Mark Stover and Alexa Jakob as his challengers.
Final Jeopardy read, "This children’s book character, introduced in 1926 & a friend of the title character, gets his name from the sound he might make."
The correct response was "Eeyore," the down-in-the dumps Donkey from Disney's Winnie The Poo.
Middle lecturn's Mark had written "Ee-Or" – which Ken accepted.
'SO BAD!'
2-game winner Ed bet enough to beat him with $40K total.
But fans still could not believe his runner-up's response was allowed despite his cartoonishly "bad" spelling.
"Interesting that they aren’t nipping misspellings for Eeyore," one Twitter fan fumed.
"Ee-or! Bad spelling!" wrote a second.
"It’s soo bad. Ee-or," wrote a third.
"So @Jeopardy, we’re going to say this is incorrect, yet accept the ABSURD spelling of 'Ee-or'?!?!" wrote a third sharing a photo of a recent infamous spelling snub. "Thankfully it didn’t affect the game"
A fifth accused, "So we’re just taking any ol’ spelling or pronunciation. K."
The official “Jeopardy!” website states that written responses to the Final Jeopardy! clue don’t have to be spelled correctly in order to win, “but they must be phonetically correct and not add or subtract any extraneous sounds or syllables."
That said, many more fans instantly recalled a controversial June 22 episode that came down to spelling.
CONFUSING RULES
During that game, Sadie Goldberger lost in Final Jeopardy! because her response of "Harriet Tubman" was deemed as false after judges thought her penmanship was illegible.
Fans said she was robbed of a win by Mayim after having the correct answer but not writing it out in full.
Mayim told Sadie: "… It looks like you were going for 'Harriet Tubman' but you did not finish, so unfortunately that is not going to be acceptable."
The player nodded in agreement, but seemed to look disappointed in the results and her response did read as finished to many online.
"Sadie was flat-out jobbed out of a win. I read it right away on the reveal as Harriet Tubman," one angry fan wrote at the time.
"They've counted Final Jeopardy! responses with worse handwriting than that."
An online petition even started and was signed by hundreds and an alum to hopefully get rid of handwriting the show's final clue.
One earlier tweeted on the topic, "I don't quite get why contestants don't have keypads for Final Jeopardy. It's 2022."
Last month there was also ironically a typo in Final Jeopardy just days after the first spelling snub.
ANYTHING BUT A STALEMATE
Ken and Mayim began filling in for the legendary Alex Trebek after his tragic 2020 passing and a fleet of Season 37 celebrity guest hosts, including now-disgraced Mike Richards.
The show's ratings nearly doubled to 9.7 million viewers when Ken made his first appearance.
When Mayim took over her hosting duties the headcount dropped to 5.9 million viewers during a college championship and sadly, she hadn't bested Ken's ratings since.
Fans have not been pleased with Mayim's stage presence, slamming her for errors and mishaps quite regularly during her past eight weeks before Ken returned to finish the season last week.
They have nit-picked her “slow” reaction time to players' responses, frequent judge interventions for re-scores, and stiff interactions with players during the Q&A storytelling portions.
All that considered, the fanbase is pretty disappointed the show will "indecisively" continue as-is.
"You obviously don't care about your fans," one person wrote on a Facebook fan page. "Most fans don't want Mayim back at all next season. I'll be considering cutting back my viewership when she's on."
"Makes no sense," a second added, while a third followed: "NO NO NO! Make a decision!"
Another agreed: "Just make a freaking decision.. either way you’re going to lose viewers."
A fourth at least begged for a Ken title boost: "I'm fine with Ken and Mayim sharing the hosting duties (for now), but they should at least make Ken's position as a co-host a more permanent post.
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"And dispense with the ridiculous (and quite frankly demeaning) 'and now, hosting Jeopardy!, Ken Jennings' business."
Jeopardy! airs weeknights at 7 pm ET.
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