Jeopardy! fans rip judges for overruling Amar Kakirde’s ‘incorrect’ answer and blast Ken Jennings’ ‘lost’ opportunity
Fans of the game show said that the contestant’s answer was not the same as what the answer was and said host Ken Jennings should have asked him to clarify.
Amar Kakirde chose the category “Date of Birth” for $400 on the May 24 episode.
The question read, “Jan. 3, 2009, with the mining of the Genesis block.”
Amar’s contestant, Has, buzzed in with “Minecraft,” which was wrong.
Then, Amar buzzed in and said, “Blockchain.”
“Also, incorrect,” Ken, 50, said.
Anna Marie did not buzz in by the time the buzzer went off.
Ken revealed the answer to be Bitcoin.
The game went on as usual and the contestants moved on to different categories.
OVERTURNED
However, when Jeopardy! came back from a commercial break, Ken made an announcement before they continued on with the game.
“First off, we have a little surprise for Amar that does not involve rats or crabs,” he said.
“Our judges have decided to accept his response of the Blockchain, so that’s going to add $800 to his score.”
This pushed Amar into the lead with $4,500.
Amar nodded with a slight smile on his face before they started the next round.
Although both Bitcoin and Blockchain were invented in 2009, fans pointed out that the idea for Blockchain was thought of at least 20 years before bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a type of digital currency, which allows users to pay using encryption algorithms.
Blockchain is a database that is used to record transactions.
Amar went on to win the game.
FANS REACT
A Reddit user asked if they judges should have overturned Amar’s answer because technically they were not the same thing.
“Bitcoin and blockchain are not the same! The clue as it was written unambiguously refers to Bitcoin: the genesis block of the Bitcoin blockchain was mined on Jan. 3, 2009,” the original user said.
“However, the idea of the blockchain dates back over two decades before Bitcoin. David Chaum, who has done tons of work on digital currency, proposed a blockchain protocol in his PhD dissertation in 1982.”
“While all blockchains have a genesis block – simply the first block on that respective chain – the use of the definite article ‘the genesis block’ together with the date in the clue makes the answer ‘blockchain’ far too general to be ruled correct in my opinion,” they ended.
Many fans agreed and said they weren’t sure of the rationalization to overturn it.
“I think if Ken asked him to be more specific instead of outright ruling it incorrect he would’ve gotten the right answer,” one fan said.
“Agree with this. The opportunity for ‘be more specific’ was lost,” a Reddit user replied.
