‘Jeopardy!’ hit with backlash after contestants mispronounce answer

“Jeopardy!” had a pronunciation problem on Monday’s episode.

All three contestants lost out when they mispronounced the response to a $1,600 clue in the Double Jeopardy category “The Quotable Alex” that asked the source of a quote about socialism.

The answer was Russian writer and dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. All three gave that answer but none pronounced it to the satisfaction of host Mayim Bialik.

Juveria Zaheer, the first to buzz in, went with “solitchnitchin.”

Bialik’s pause before rejecting that answer may have signaled the two others that it was a pronunciation issue.

Sami Casanova tried “soliznitsin.” Hannah Wilson said “soltsaneetchin.”

Bialik rejected those, too, and then said, “We’re looking for ‘solzhanitsin.’”

Some viewers of the show weren’t happy with the ruling, with one commenting on social media, “If you’re not going to accept anyone’s attempt to pronounce Solzhenitsyn, don’t write a clue about him.”

Another wrote, “Solzhenitsyn. I get it’s hard to say, but one of them was fairly close. Of all the names to be strict on.”

It wasn’t the only ruling on Monday’s show that viewers found persnickety. Some thought Zaheer should have gotten credit for saying “moms” rather than “mommies” in an answer about the children’s book “Heather Has Two Mommies.”

Returning champion Wilson won Monday’s game, her fourth.

The-CNN-Wire
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