Jeopardy! fans are a hard bunch to please. No one knows that more than Ken Jennings, who struggled to get viewers to accept him after Alec Trebek’s death. Ken Jennings had to issue an apology to fans of the game show after misleading them. Keep reading to find out more about his huge mistake.
Jeopardy! Fans Call Out Incorrect Clue
Ken Jennings rose to fame in 2004 after competing on Jeopardy! He won the show a record-breaking 74 consecutive games before his streak ended. He was named as the permanent host of the game show three years after Alex Trebek passed away from cancer in 2020.
But despite winning the show many, many times and hosting for two years, Ken Jennings doesn’t always get things right. Viewers are fast to call out incorrect questions and answers on the popular game show.
The episode that aired in late October featured a category called “Daddy is there really a…” One of the clues was “No: A.I. Generated The TikTok Image of this pig/human eventually killed by Tim cheese.” Ken Jennings quipped after reading the clue that he didn’t understand any of it.
The answer was “Who is John Pork?” John Pork is a popular social media meme of a man with a pig’s head. The meme went viral around 2018 with John Pork “calling” people. “RIP John Pork” trended online in 2023, leading people to believe that the meme was dead.
Ken Jennings Apologizes For Misleading Viewers
The Jeopardy! clue and answer indicated that John Pork was created solely through A.I. But long-time internet users were quick to point out that the meme predated the rise of A.I. in content creation.
Ken Jennings recently announced that he was leaving his podcast after eight years. The podcast became too much after his full-time job as Jeopardy! host. He has to travel regularly from his home in Seattle, Washington, to L.A. to film the game show.
His post announcing the departure from the podcast was slammed as misleading by some fans. But that’s not what he apologized for. The game show host posted an apology video on TikTok over the clue stating that the John Pork was A.I.
“When we played a clue recently on Jeopardy! about John Pork, I remarked that I didn’t understand a word of it,” Ken Jennings said in the video.
“Well, I’ve had the chance to learn quite a bit since that clue aired about the late Mr. Pork, including the fact that some viewers took exception with our description of him as AI Generated,” he continued.
@jeopardy Replying to @JoeG zz 🤭 Sorry to this pork. Jeopardy! #JohnPork #KenJennings
“Now, even though AI is used heavily in many of his TikToks, it’s possible that wasn’t the best wording to refer to his original appearances,” the Jeopardy! host clarified.
“John, I hope he’ll forgive me and all of us at Jeopardy! for any insult we may have committed against you or your memory,” Ken Jennings said.
The post was flooded with comments from people who didn’t know that John Pork was dead. Ken Jennings might have to issue a second apology for breaking the news like that.
Jennifer Havener grew up in a small town in Upstate New York. She earned her B.A in Writing & Literature from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She always knew watching reality TV shows and soap operas, particularly ‘Days of Our Lives’, would come in handy someday. When she’s not writing, she’s playing with her dogs, Lola and Ruger
