Last week, we reported that the Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings was forced to apologize to contestant Heather Ryan for a “problematic” clue that fans claimed was “sexist.” Now, Ryan has broken her silence to address this controversy.
‘Problematic’ Jeopardy! Clue
In the “Complete the Rhyming Phrase” category on the October 28th episode, Jennings read the clue, “Men seldom make passes at…” The answer: “Girls who wear glasses.”
Afterwards, Jennings acknowledged that the clue was “a little problematic” to say. He then apologized to a contestant, health program director Heather Ryan, who was wearing glasses.
“Sorry, Heather,” he said.
“Very,” another contestant named Will Wallace chimed in to add.
Ryan later lost the game by just $1.
Check out the uncomfortable moment in the video below.
Fans were quick to unleash their fury over this clue.
“Still angry about this. She’s used her intelligence to get on here, only to be insulted by a sexist and rude comment,” one person wrote.
“It was a weird choice,” another person added. “There are plenty of other rhyming phrases to choose from that don’t make your contestants, your host, and your audience visibly uncomfortable.”
Related: ‘Jeopardy!’ Host Ken Jennings Forced To Apologize To Female Contestant For ‘Problematic’ Clue
Ryan Breaks Her Silence
Ryan has now broken her silence to address this for the first time.
“It is definitely an odd choice,” Ryan told Pipe Dream, the student newspaper at Binghamton University. “I think it made everybody in the audience and on stage, and Ken Jennings too, a little uncomfortable. It was like, ‘oh, that was unexpected.’”
And to be fair, it does seem rather out-of-step for a Jeopardy! question, doesn’t it?
“Maybe we choose better rhyming phrases in 2024,” she continued. “Unfortunately, there are still girls who are [in] middle school and they don’t want to wear their glasses and they’re losing out on their education. So, I think it’s much better to be able to see than anything else.”
Despite this, Ryan still had a great time competing on Jeopardy!
“It was very fun,” Ryan said. “I had a great time. Everybody there was very welcoming.”
“It’s such a part of American culture that I definitely wanted to go on when I got the call for it,” she concluded. “It’s just a very special thing to play a small role in this big part…it’s been running for 40 years, and so I got to play my part in it.”
Jennings’ Uncertain Future On Jeopardy!
This controversy came at a difficult time for Jennings, as his future on Jeopardy! is currently uncertain.
Earlier in October, sources told The Mirror that Jeopardy! producers are no longer sure if they want to keep Jennings on as the host of the game show.
Executives have reportedly noticed that ratings on Wheel of Fortune have spiked in the weeks since Ryan Seacrest took over as host from Pat Sajak. This has led them to become curious as to whether they could make the same thing happen with Jeopardy!
Jennings is vulnerable to being fired at all times. This is because he does not have a long-term contract for the $4 million hosting gig on Jeopardy!
“Of course Ken wants to do this for the next twenty years, but he’s going to have to get comfortable with only being renewed one or two years at a time for the foreseeable future,” another source previously explained. “Sony is keeping him in the hosting job but they are also keeping their options open.”
Jennings has yet to respond to Ryan’s take on this “problematic” clue controversy.
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