dhkendall wrote:If both Clarence and Richard are correct answers, then they should both get credit if that situation arises, right? (I always imagine that the other person's money comes from the writer's paycheque who was responsible for not pinning down the question to one answer.
)
Future section in the Wikipedia article on
Jeopardy!:
SEASONS 34 - 35 (AKA "THE DARK YEARS")
Following Trebek's departure at the end of Season 33, fellow Canadian Dave Kendall somewhat improbably became the new host. The change was not well received.
[136] Fans described Kendall's voice as "like
Gilbert Gottfried arguing with a
cat in heat while scratching a
chalkboard."
[citation needed] His detractors were not so kind. The new host quickly demonstrated his penchant for groan-worthy
puns. He attempted to
steer every contestant interview toward the subject of
flags and/or
anthems. Example:
- DAVE: Our next contestant, Clarence, hails from Mississippi, the only state whose flag still displays the saltire of the Confederate battle flag. What are your thoughts on that, Clarence?
CLARENCE: Um ... I ... did you say "saltire"?
DAVE: Yes. In heraldic terms, that refers to an ordinary formed by the crossing of a bend and a bend sinister. I guess we need more of these sorts of questions on our qualifying test.
CLARENCE: I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but I felt 20 such questions on a 50-question test was maybe too much already.
THE 9 PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE: nervous laughter [137]
But perhaps the most disruptive change came in the form of
Kendall's Rule. Kendall's Rule addressed the problem of contestants giving responses that were technically correct but not listed as acceptable on Dave's notes. Such responses resulted in an initial ruling that they were incorrect, allowing another contestant to ring in with the expected response and collect the dollar value of the clue. Later in the game, after review by the judges, the host would have to reverse the initial ruling. The contestant who had been ruled incorrect would then
also be awarded the dollar value of the clue. The second contestant retained the points gained as a result of the initial incorrect ruling. When this happened, Kendall's Rule dictated that the clue's dollar value would be deducted from the "paycheque" [
sic] of the clue's writer.
Kendall's Rule quickly lead
[hi TPH!] to long and oddly specific clues. The size of the display monitors increased while the display font shrunk.
[138] This eventually resulted in the infamous
Jeopardy! Riot of Wednesday, May 15, 2019. On that date, during the taping of Season 35's final game, enraged audience members rushed the stage and forcibly evicted Kendall from Sony Pictures Studios. They were joined in this endeavor by the three contestants and several impoverished clue writers.
[139] This ejection occurred in response to the $3600 clue in CROSSWORD CLUES "G" which red
[hi TPH!] as follows: WALLACE MIGHT BE ABLE TO TELL YOU THAT, ACCORDING TO DEFINITION 1A IN THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (5TH ED., COPYR. 2012, UPDATED 2016, ISBN 978-0553583229) THIS IS A REINFORCED EYELET, AS IN CLOTH OR LEATHER, THROUGH WHICH A FASTENER MAY BE PASSED.
[140] An audience member who participated in the riot later offered this recollection: "When Dave said 'open parentheses,' I think we all sort of just lost it."
[141]
