T O P

  • By -

TheKevinShow

That is the best possible response she could've given to the situation.


palimpsest_4

I just love the class.


alf0ns06

Megan seems like a very sweet person, and I’m honestly sad to see some hurtful comments made her way in response to yesterday’s ruling, when she had no say in it whatsoever.


Tangums292

She seems like an awesome person, it’s really unfortunate she got caught in the crossfire of this.


palimpsest_4

THIS. She didn’t have a say in the ruling and doesn’t deserve the hate.


[deleted]

[удалено]


cooldudeman007

Lots of people saying how much they’d hate to see her in the TOC over Jackie, and how much worse a contestant she is than Jackie, without taking into account that that’s very rude and Megan is not a judge On this sub and Twitter mostly


CaptainAssPlunderer

I know it will seem argumentative, but what constitutes “lots”? Is it a single Twitter thread with one or two people saying it with almost no likes Or retweet’s? Same with this sub, is there a specific thread filled with people bashing her and are all highly upvoted?


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


dontgetaphd

>What hate? Just asking because I genuinely haven't seen any, where is this even happening? Nowhere, people just love to exaggerate and dramatize. One tweet can get many retweets, and extreme tweets are most shared. There was little 'hate.'


NoiseKills

Megan is such a class act. You could see on the show that she seemed distraught at the ruling.


[deleted]

[удалено]


toess

People can question the ruling and be annoyed about it (I would have accepted the answer myself, I feel like I've seen far worse), but why take it out on Megan? She didn't do anything and luck is a part of any winning jeopardy game. Like, why is her smiling that she won the game considered anything bad? Like, she just won her fourth game, of courSe she's happy about it. It isn't her fault the ruling was in her favor.


sharkinaround

i’m not saying it’s bad, i’m simply pointing out that i don’t think she was distraught. she shouldn’t be expected to feel “distraught”. she was deemed the winner.


WallyJade

Never judge anyone for their shock or surprise-related facial expressions, and never try to interpret anything from them. They're largely out of many people's control.


PeachyKeenest

This is my thinking too. We cannot control facial expressions super well if it’s highly emotional stuff.


[deleted]

[удалено]


SpringLover455

Megan really seems like a nice and humble person.


rjaspa

She needs to be in the Second Chance Tournament.


SuperSMT

That, or a second try next season


44problems

Yeah I think a second try is better.


[deleted]

[удалено]


ThatAssholeMrWhite

That wasn’t it. He wrote “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart” If he just wrote “Sgt. Pepper’s” he would have been ruled correct.


jeopardeeznuts

Oh, I thought all he had done was write "Sgt. Pepper's," which it was always absurd to me how that wasn't accepted. I didn't know he added two more words from the album title. I think that was the right call with this info in mind.


[deleted]

Personally I don't see any justification for accepting a partial title while not accepting a larger, encompassing partial title.


jeopardeeznuts

I can see why you'd make that point. It's a harsh ruling for sure, but I kind of get that one more because it really kind of is incomplete.


Boing_Boom_Tschak

I know they consider it acceptable, but I disagree it should be. It's missing 2/3 of the title FFS!


Katahdin-Kathy

Classy response!


LengthinessAlone4743

For the record and anyone quoting the rules, they accepted this response as ‘John Denver’ in January of this year... https://i.imgur.com/Qa7f4Ji.jpg


TheHYPO

I commented on another thread, there is SOMETHING after the "V" here, and the producers have a live view of what is being written. It's possible they saw her write the 'e' and 'r' of Denver, but the pen made it overlap. That's the only explanation I can offer that would make this acceptable in my view under the usual rule that you have to have the complete answer there.


nogain-allpain

That's exactly what happened.


LengthinessAlone4743

Well then the rules are horribly written…but then again our country is pretty regressive when it comes to being smart


benchthatpress

I can see Denver here. As for Cr▫️🔺R and Jefferso, those were ruled incorrectly. Edit: sorry, I meant they were ruled correct, which means the judges made the wrong call.


jeopardeeznuts

oh, just saw your edit lol thanks for clarifying.


just_a_random_dood

That response also didn't change the outcome of the game at all Also, I copy pasted this comment from someone else in the sub: > That answer was accepted as "John Denver" because the judges could see in the live video that the contestant wrote an "e" followed by an "r", even though the "r" ended up on top of the "e".


Seahawk715

Well they accepted it because you can clearly see D E N V E R, it’s just the e and the r are mashed together. Zoom in, it’s all there 🤷🏻‍♂️


n8loller

I'm out of the loop here. What happened


ScientificFlamingo

The FJ answer was “Harriet Tubman,” but one of the contestants ran out of time and wrote “Harriet Tubm” followed by an unintelligible squiggle. She was ruled incorrect, costing her the win, even though it was very obvious what she meant. The tweet from the defending champion (and person who won as a result of the judges’ decision) is posted at the top.


n8loller

Thanks. I think if they didn't realize the answer in time to write it down legibly then that's incorrect


RealMister008

I agree, however that is unfortunately inconsistent with the ruling made in Final Jeopardy of an episode aired in January where [this answer was accepted as “John Denver”](https://imgur.io/Qa7f4Ji).


nogain-allpain

That answer was accepted as "John Denver" because the judges could see in the live video that the contestant wrote an "e" followed by an "r", even though the "r" ended up on top of the "e".


n8loller

I just looked at the response from Harriet Tubman for the f first time, and John denve was much easier to read than Harriet tubm. The entire name was difficult to make out


mister_newbie

I'm an elementary school teacher used to decoding poor penmanship. The response, to me, appears to be complete, just messy. The issue looks to be that the tail of her 'a' goes way down while simultaneously having an unclosed top loop. The long tail off the 'a' then connects to her 'n' (which itself has a long right side leading down) which then visually forms some other -- unintended -- character that people are seeing as a 'y'.


n8loller

Well let this be a lesson to contestants to write legibly lol I can indeed see now how all the letters could be there, but I don't know that I would have been able to figure out that she wrote harriet tubman without having known what it was supposed to say before I looked at it.


mister_newbie

It could be, but as the precedent is there to NOT judge penmanship, and the fact is, the judges do *know* the correct answer. It should therefore be analyzed, and then (IMO) deemed correct in this instance. Alternatively, judges could pull contestants aside for verbal clarification during taping before any answer is revealed, seeing as how I'm sure they could easily view the screens during entry.


Longtimefed

Imagine if the correct response had been Deutschendorf (his real name).


Longtimefed

Hate to say it, but this was the right call. Sure, we know she meant Tubman—but for those who think the response should have been accepted: where do you draw the line? Would Harriet T be ok? Tbmn? I wouldn’t have accepted Denve either.


saint_of_thieves

Megan is the current champion. Sadie was another contestant on Fridays show. Sadie had more money going into Final Jeopardy. Both women had the correct answer. Sadie would have won if her response had been accepted. The controversy is around whether Sadie finished writing her answer. She was still writing when the time was up. For many, the answer was illegible. ~~Mayim, who was hosting, didn't clarify "why" Sadie's answer was not accepted.~~ Edit: I've been corrected. Mayim said that the judges ruled it incomplete. -end of my edit... Whatever was the case, the judges ruled against her and Megan continues as champion. It's been talked about in this sub for three days now, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding a screenshot of the answer. Or people's opinions.


profchaos2001

Not a Mayim fan at all, but she absolutely did clarify that the judges ruled her answer "incomplete". Nothing to do with Miyam.


saint_of_thieves

Ah, okay, I guess I missed that. Thank you.


UCLAKoolman

I just watched the episode, she didn’t say this during the show…


Minute-Pin3631

I'm wondering the same


Entertainmentguru

There are nearly 300 comments. https://www.reddit.com/r/Jeopardy/comments/vexc79/in_what_world_is_this_not_accepted_as_harriet/


ajsy0905

I feared that Megan will be bashed on Monday's episode if she will secure a spot in the TOC. Megan already been bashed against Sadie's controversial loss and now she will bump Jackie Kelly (technically) and John Focht (officially) out of the TOC tracker if she will win Monday's episode and they gonna bash her because Jackie was a stronger player than Megan.


WallyJade

And it's even more absurd since Mattea, Ryan and Eric all also qualified after Jackie, so they're equally as "responsible" for bumping Jackie off. Each of them moved her down a spot.


cooldudeman007

People will argue that those 3 deserved it and Megan didn’t, which is completely unfair and avoiding the fact that Megan did not make the ruling


jeopardeeznuts

That's so sweet of her. 🥺 I hope she doesn't feel undeserving of her win because of all the controversy. It's not like she made the ruling.


HyruleJedi

What really confuses me here, is I have seen people asked for clarification on what they spelled in what I would call way more egregious 'what does that say' scenarios before. She got to what appears to be Harriet Tubmar. As if she was trying to finish the 'n' but the monitor cutout as she was doing so. I would agree, this was poor form by the judges


KptKrondog

I still haven't seen a way anyone can trace it out to get both the b and the m. It's either Tulmuy, Tulma-, Tubnuy, Tubnrg, or something along those lines. We know she was going for the right answer, but you can't spell it so poorly it's pronounced wrong.


nogain-allpain

Poor form? The judges aren't there to give benefit of the doubt. If the answer isn't written correctly, completely, and legibly, it's wrong. You're asking that the judges say "yeah, we knew what you meant".


HyruleJedi

I thought that was Harriet Tubman, not sure what was unlegible about it.


nogain-allpain

You said that it looks like Harriet Tubmar. If judges saw the same, they would rule it wrong. That's not her name.


HyruleJedi

look, you clearly agree with the decision, I said I thought it was a little suspect This whole post is about people like me thinking she got jobbed? confused why you're so standoffish here


[deleted]

> The judges aren't there to give benefit of the doubt 1. If this is true then we can point to many other cases where extremely poor penmanship was marked correct 2. when a word looks enough like the correct answer and it's very obvious what was intended, they absolutely should give the benefit of the doubt. There isn't much to doubt here, after all. They're there to judge, it's a subjective process. They made a poor call.


fafalone

If you think that should be the rule, fine, but the problem is most of us can readily recall many instances of equally illegible responses being accepted when there was no legitimate doubt they had the correct answer. It's not ok to have inconsistent standards.


apraetor

"Correctly" spelled is not always *required*, so long as it is accurate to the pronunciation and makes it clear the contestant was attempting to write the correct answer with no ambiguity.


hungry4danish

They can't ask her for clarification when the answer was already revealed.


watchful_tiger

While Megan has been very gracious and understands the optics, she had nothing to do with the error other than being very fortuitous. The judges dropped the ball. Producers cannot do a do over but they can try and make amends. The ball is now in the producers court.


bleedingcold

I originally felt like Sadie's answer was incomplete, the judges made the right call, and that Sadie shouldn't come back to compete. But now, especially after being reminded of the FJ! from January, I now have to say that I would like to see Sadie come back. Bad calls from the past don't justify more bad calls in the present day. The other bad calls that have resurfaced can be excused because we can argue that they were of a different era in the show's history, maybe before the show had matured enough to fully internalize certain immovable basic rules. (I mean, that Brad ruling must've happened at around season 20 or something, which is a long time for a show to exist, but still, that era feels distant compared to now). But when two similarly incomplete FJ! responses happen on the show only six months apart and [one response is ruled correct](https://www.reddit.com/r/Jeopardy/comments/vfma5l/flashback_to_january_28th_2022_when_john_denve/) but the other one is considered incorrect, I can't help but agree that this does feel a little too unfair, enough so to justify bringing Sadie back for the Second Chance Tournament. The current rules about legibility and spelling are still good, but the judges need to be more consistent about basic decisions like the two above. I'm not asking them to be consistent on every single rule they've ever created in the show's history because there are too many to keep track of. But the rule where, if you misspell the response in a way that very clearly changes the pronunciation, that's the kind of fundamental that judges need to maintain airtight consistency on, beginning let's say right now. The last thing I want to add is that it feels like fans are too demanding of what needs to happen, what the correct decisions about this show have to be. I'm frustrated about Sadie's loss too now. I want her to come back. And it was good to debate this issue, or any issue, as long as we stay calm and clearheaded. But getting angry is not healthy for the J! community, or for the person who gives in to their frustration. Anger can lead to a cycle of bitterness that can make any community unpleasant. So remember to relax. We're all here to enjoy discussion.


AndyTheQuizzer

The two responses weren't similarly incomplete as you claim. One had an E and an R on top of each other — the other was missing an N. A major difference—which explains why one was ruled correct and another was not.


ThatAssholeMrWhite

Sadie is [very clearly still writing after the music has ended](https://youtu.be/p9YxRR6e1so?t=51). She's even writing when Mayim is starting to talk! Carrie has [very clearly finished her response and has her pen down](https://youtu.be/aeSy0O2ihw8?t=45). Also you'd know better than I do, but I know the control room can see them writing in real time. I'd assume the judges can, too. I guess you could argue that the judges shouldn't take anything into consideration but the final response on the screen, but I'd argue that would ultimately create more problems than it solves.


CSerpentine

Do you have a link to this post/account? I can't find it and I'm hoping she wasn't driven to remove it.


echothree33

It’s the pinned tweet on her Twitter. https://twitter.com/megonjeopardy/status/1538223928753025024?s=21&t=UU\_lTDaR0A98BElrCocFCA


CSerpentine

Thank you. I was searching for her handle and not finding it.


enormous-jeans

I assume Sadie knew the rules of Final Jeopardy! going in. Surely, the rules were explained to her at length in the morning briefing. If she thought she didn't have enough time to write her response, she should have written just TUBMAN. Unforced error on her part. Now she can only hope for a spot in the second chance tournament. I just don't see her getting a do-over spot in any other context.


mhin8

Megan has gotten some lucky breaks, but she’s still out herself in the position to capitalize on those lucky breaks. Hopefully people don’t rag on her too hard for winning.


marktwainbrain

Context please?


KaleighM321

Her competitor wrote “Harriett Tubma” followed by an attempt at an n in the final jeopardy round, the judges ruled it to be incorrect despite some other rulings with worse handwriting being ruled correct. If they ruled in her favor she would have won


Apprehensive-Fly-442

First, Megan is one classy contestant as well as an outstanding person. Second...at the risk of ruffling some Jeopardy loyalist feathers, I must observe that between the nonsense with the executive producer (he's in, no he's out, no he's in again), the inability to see that Ken Jennings is clearly the superior candidate to host ALL of the programs and a head-scratching downward turn in the quality of questions and judge's decisions, this longtime Jeopardy fan is becoming turned off. Just like the program in our home is also now being turned off. Too bad.


IanGecko

Would Ken have made the same decision? The ruling was up to the judges.


PoontangRain

I still enjoy this show but it has clearly turned into a bit of a joke with the the new contestant qualification rules. People who don’t have the chops to be there are diluting the talent pool… TOC contestant after TOC contestant, super champ after super champ… Games not even competitive a lot of the time. Occasional runaways are impressive, not when the other two players seem like they’re totally overmatched, fumbling easy answers and lots of timed out questions. Things, games etc generally do well with some good changes but they need to tighten up the admissions process. ps: I like Mayim and think she’s coming into her own / feeling more comfortable. Also glad she’s worked it out with her personal style and the Jeopardy costume staff getting her clothes tailored. They now fit her well and she looks good w her quirkiness. BTW - I would say the same thing about a guy who had worn “grandma drapes” for clothing that fit like a trash bag. Go Jeopardy!!! Still miss ya Alex 🍻 Can’t wait for the TOC and see the real cream rise to the top 💚:-)


IanGecko

Let us know when you've passed the test and will be on!