‘Jeopardy!’: Contestant Mispronouncing His Answer Just Cost Him the Game
If you’re a fan of Jeopardy! , then you know that the show follows a strict set of rules. Contestants have a limited amount of time to answer each question. They must also always give their answers in the form of a question. However, there are also other rules that pop up more infrequently that are even more stringent. One rule being that the skilled competitors must use the proper pronunciation when making verbal guesses to the clues. Unfortunately, Kevin Manning learned this lesson the hard way, and his slip of the tongue ultimately impeded his chances of becoming champion.
Kevin Manning was recently a contestant on ‘Jeopardy!’
Manning, of course, was a Jeopardy! contestant who competed in the episode which aired on March 27. For a while, it seemed like the knowledgeable engineer had a great chance at winning the game and besting the current champion, Tamara Ghattas. Unfortunately, a pronunciation technicality ultimately sent the Kansas City, Missouri, native packing.
The engineer lost quite a bit of money thanks to a clue in the Bible category
The trouble began after Manning selected a clue from the Bible category. The clue in question was “After the last supper, Jesus traveled to this garden to pray & was arrested there,” and it was worth $1,600. When the Jeopardy! contestant responded, “What is: The Garden of Gethsemane,” many viewers likely believed him to be correct. However, when former champion, Ken Jennings responded with a brusque “No,” it was clear that the clue was still in play.
Manning’s mispronunciation prevented him from becoming a champion
It didn’t take long for Ghattas to chime in with the answer. The reigning Jeopardy! champion responded, “What is: Gethsemane,” with an alternative pronunciation and was deemed correct. “Yeah, we just needed the ‘n’ in Gethsemane, that’s correct,” Jennings explained. So while Manning had the correct answer, his pronunciation caused his total to dip by $1,600.
Some ‘Jeopardy!’ fans expressed sympathy for Manning
Ultimately, Manning’s slip of the tongue might have cost him the win. Since he was the only person to answer the Final Jeopardy! question correctly, he could have bested Ghattas and walked away a champion had he not lost $1,600. Unfortunately for him, the technicality caused by mispronunciation sent him packing. However, it seems as if the Jeopardy! contestant is gaining plenty of sympathy from fans online. Some viewers are discussing how unfortunate Manning’s small faux pas was.
“It’s a shame that Kevin’s mispronunciation of ‘Gethsemane cost him, which would’ve enabled him to pass Nicole on [Final Jeopardy!],” one fan on Reddit commented.
Are ‘Jeopardy’ contestants ever allowed to mispronounce words?
Another avid viewer seemed to believe that both Jeopardy! contestants had mispronounced the garden in question. “The Bible for $1,600 — seems both Kevin and Tamara mispronounced Gethsemane, yet her answer was ruled a correct answer!” one person exclaimed. However, a long-time fan pointed out that mispronunciations are only allowed when they are phonetic in some way.
“Yeah, mispronunciations are OK as long as they could be a way to pronounce the word based on its spelling,” they wrote. “So soft G vs. hard G isn’t an issue, but missing an N is,” the fan replied to the aforementioned statement. Clearly, the rules that Jeopardy! contestants must follow can get a little stringent. It’s too bad that Manning lost on a technicality.
