Producers for the game show Jeopardy! issued a correction after one of the clues outraged supporters of Palestine.
During an episode last week, a player selected the category “Where’s that Church?” and host Alex Trebek gave the clue, “Built in the 300s AD, the Church of the Nativity.” One of the players buzzed in and guessed “Palestine,” which Trebek did not accept. A second player offered “Israel” as an answer, which the host accepted.
Many were outraged by the show’s refusal to accept Palestine interchangeably for Israel and claimed that Jeopardy! was trying to put its thumb on the scale of one of the globe’s oldest conflicts.
Unacceptable!! Bethlehem is in the Palestinian territories which Israel illegally occupies (Katie Needle got the correct answer & was robbed). @Jeopardy owes an apology for endorsing Israel’s universally-condemned illegal takeover of Palestinian lands.pic.twitter.com/Ym99YziM4k
— Omar Baddar (@OmarBaddar) January 11, 2020
In a statement to the show’s website, producers issued a correction to the clue. They wrote, “In the process of taping this clue, ‘BUILT IN THE 300s A.D., THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY’ we became aware that the clue was flawed as written and that determining an acceptable response would be problematic.”
They added, “In accordance with our rules and in the interest of fairness, we voided the clue and threw it out. We restored Katie’s and Jack’s scores to what they were prior to the clue. The outcome of the game was not affected. We then continued the game with this replacement clue. Unfortunately, through human error in post-production, the uncorrected version of the game was broadcast. We regret the error and we will make every effort to ensure this never happens again.”
Trebek, who is in his 36th season of hosting the show, has been battling cancer for the past year. He is still undergoing chemotherapy, though his cancer is in remission. He vowed to host the show as long as he was able to do so.
