‘Jeopardy!’ Fans React After Ken Jennings Allows Answer Despite Mispronunciation

Martin Holmes November 23, 2023, 11:00 am

Ken Jennings and Nick Cascone on jeopardy! — Jeopardy, Inc!

The first semi-finals of the Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard tournament got underway on Wednesday, November 22, with contestant Nick Cascone making easy work of the competition.

However, Cascone’s win wasn’t without its share of controversy, as the orthopedic physician assistant from Queens, New York, was deemed correct on an answer where he messed up the pronunciation.

The moment came at the end of Double Jeopardy! when Cascone selected the last clue on the board, the $2000 tile under the “Belgium” category.

“In WWI the second battle of this western Belgian cit’Y” saw some of the earliest use of deadly poison gas,” the clue read.

Cascone appeared to know the correct answer (Ypres), but he struggled with how to say it, attempting three different variations while host Ken Jennings watched from the side.

“Ypres,” Cascone finally settled on, almost spelling out the word phonetically.

Jennings seemed hesitant to rule on the answer, telling Cascone, “Hmm, you’re not saying it right.”

“I don’t speak Belgian or Walloon,” Cascone replied, throwing his hands up.

“The ‘S’ is silent, and the ‘R’ is kind of silent,” Jennings explained before delivering some good news. “You got there eventually. We will give you credit for ‘Ypres.'”

Cascone breathed a sigh of relief as he was awarded the $2000, taking his total to $23,200. This put him way in front of his opponents, Deanna Bolio, and Kit Sekelsky, who stood at $3,000 and $1200, respectively.

Some viewers were surprised Jennings ruled the answer as correct given the show is usually a stickler on pronunciations.

“Awesome job by Nick, but a bit surprised they gave him credit,” wrote one fan on the Jeopardy! Reddit forum.

Another added, “Great job by Nick. Would be curious to see how they would have ruled the last clue had the game been closer.”

“I was doing the same at home, stumbling over how to pronounce Ypres,” said another.

“If you don’t speak the language, then just pronounce all the letters in the word or name phonetically, no matter how goofy it sounds,” one fan suggested. “Nick could have said “why-press” and would have immediately been given credit.”

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Cascone himself commented on the thread, revealing, “I was about to spell it.”

However, fellow Champions Wildcard contestant, Jilana Cotter, replied, saying, “They might not have accepted that either! During my second chance tape day one of the contestants asked if we could spell a word that we had no idea how to say (I think “Croesus” was the example given) and they told us we should always at least try to pronounce it.”

Despite the ‘Ypres’ struggle, Cascone comfortably won the episode, even though he didn’t answer the Final Jeopardy! clue correctly. He will now advance in the tournament, which is set to wrap up in December.

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