The executive producer of “Jeopardy!” has apologized for a recent slip-up that aired last week.
During the March 8 episode, a shot of the contestants’ final scores showed up on the screen at the beginning of the show — before the game began.
The scores appeared just after host Mayim Bialik congratulated the players for making it onto the long-running show and wished them luck.
Jackson Jones’ number was shown as $24,000, while Justin Bolsen’s tally was $13,570. Maya Wright’s score came in at $3,370.
Executive producer Michael Davies apologized for the mishap on Monday’s episode of the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast, admitting that the show “totally blew it.”
A shot of the contestants’ final scores showed up on the screen at the beginning of the show — before the game began.Jeopardy!He went on to say that a “series of errors” led to the on-air blunder.
“It’s somehow remarkable that they all happened, starting with the decision to pick up the monologue, which was probably the right decision,” Davies said, referring to the option of redoing a monologue, or a portion of it, after the full episode has already been taped.
“Although neither [producer] Sarah [Whitcomb Foss] and I can remember exactly what was wrong with the monologue, why we picked it up. But we do occasionally pick up monologues for some reason. Sometimes there’s a fact that’s incorrect. Sometimes there’s just a performance issue. So we pick it up at the end of the show,” he continued.
Davies explained that standard procedure in these cases is supposed to be taking the scores “back to the original level” — but that didn’t happen this time around.
“This was then not caught in [post-production], and it was not caught in the final [quality control]. There are so many elements that should check this,” he added.
He eased the minds of fans of the beloved game show by ensuring that there are new protocols in place to prevent it from happening in the future.
“And so we live and learn, and we apologize for anybody whose experience of this program was ruined,” Davies said.
“Jeopardy!” executive producer Michael Davies (center, accepting the show’s 2022 Emmy Award) apologized for the mishap on Monday’s episode of the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast.Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Jackson Jones’ number was shown as $24,000, while Justin Bolsen’s tally was $13,570. Maya Wright’s score came out to be $3,370.Jeopardy! He also hinted that the issue might have been a consequence of the pressure that comes from the ever-growing nature of the show.
“There is some pressure on this production. We’re making more episodes, people are working more hours, and so that does lead to mistakes,” he said. “But still no excuse for this. This was too basic. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
