‘Jeopardy!’ Producers Want Fans To ‘Forget’ A Recent Episode

There are some "Jeopardy!" episodes where players just get a lot of tough clues.

On June 7, three contestants - Collette Lee, Kristine Rembach, and defending champion Suresh Krishnan - all got a little more than they bargained for in an episode where they simply couldn't come up with an answer for almost two dozen questions!

In the June 7, 2023 episode of "Jeopardy!", the three contestants failed to buzz in on 23 separate questions, which left a lot of money on the board. "Jeopardy!" producer Sarah Foss discussed the episode on a recent episode of the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, which is co-hosted by former champion and 2021 Tournament of Champions guest host Buzzy Cohen.

"One thing that was not so great about this game — and, actually, Kristine and Collette joked about it in the post-game chat, they were really hoping they wouldn't go viral for leaving so much money on the board," Sarah said in comments transcribed by EW. "In this game — this has to be a record — 23 triple stumpers. And it's something we never like to see."

Buzzy agreed "No, not good," before adding that the episode was the last game filmed before everyone took a lunch break. "Maybe everyone's a little sleepy or hungry," he offered. "But, yeah, that's a tough stat to carry with you."

"Thankfully, I've seen nothing going viral about it, so it's not going to go viral," Sarah mentioned. "We mentioned it briefly here on the pod and…"

"...We'll forget it ever happened," Buzzy finished for her.

"We'll forget it ever happened," Sarah agreed.

Cohen interjected, "We'll forget it ever happened." Foss confirmed, "We'll forget it ever happened."

That being said, there were some fans that found the episode "painful to watch" and felt that the questions were "just worded weird" during the episode.

One fan took to Twitter to ask, "Is it just me, or was tonight's episode of #jeopardy painful to watch? As far as unanswered clues went, this episode had to be in the top 10."

"I noticed how many 3Ss there were, but I was also surprised that 2-3 of those were 'gimmes' for me & I couldn't believe nobody even tried on them," another follower offered.

"Yeah, I had the same thought for several of the clues," the fan agreed.

Another "Jeopardy!" fan commented on their tweet, writing, "Stat discovered…out of 55 clues read (couldn’t get to the last two in DJ and the DDs don’t apply) there were 23 triple stumpers - 16 in the DJ round. That's insane, friends."

However, another fan came to the players' defense, commenting on a "Jeopardy!" tweet. "The questions were a little too detailed and just worded weird tonight !!" they wrote, clarifying that they are a "nightly watcher."

In a June 2023 interview with the New Yorker promoting his new book, “100 Places To See After You Die," cohost Ken Jennings said that he tries his best to make contestants feel "not panicky" while they compete.

“I’m always thinking, How can I make the contestants feel—I don’t know about comfortable, but at least not panicky?” he continued. “Because I’ve been there, and I know it’s tough,” he said. “I see the hand shaking when they’re trying to wager.”

“And they know it’s a weighty moment,” he admitted, recognizing that it’s one of the hardest parts of the game. “The good thing is, you can take an afternoon and do some online research and break down how to wager Final Jeopardy.”

“If you can know four or five cases, and if you can train your brain to do that flowchart, you can be ready,” he explained. “That said, it’s a crucible, and people do it wrong sometimes.”