JEOPARDY!'s Ken Jennings has lost his cool after a contestant confessed he "instantly rejected" the game show's phone call to return.
The Jeopardy! host turned to the camera in a desperate plea for people to pick up the phone.
Former champion Ken, 49, is hosting a two-and-a-half-month Champions Wildcard Tournament.
The special kicked off on Monday, inviting back one, two, and three-time winners from Season 37 and 38.
Joe Feldmann, a technology professional from Bethesda, Maryland, faced Amanda Ganske, a product marketing manager from Austin, Texas; and Brendan Sargent, a small business owner originally from Worcester, Massachusetts.
During Thursday's interview segment, Ken turned to Joe, a former two-day champion, to ask when he got "The Call" to return.
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'PLEASE CALL US!'
Ken began: "When it came time to get you back on this competition, we had some difficulties, right?"
Joe admitted: “I was sitting at my office, unknown number, you know what that means- instant reject.
“I started reading the transcript in my voicemail, and it was hit and miss.
"The words were gargled, but the word Jeopardy! did come through correctly.
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“So I was able to call back and work everything out.”
Ken turned to the camera and said: “I guess the moral at home is if you get a crazy gargled voicemail with just the word Jeopardy!...”
The host's expression morphed into a wide-eyed stare: “Please call us! We’re trying to find you!”
FANS REACT: 'REALLY?'
Jeopardy! contestants send producers five topics they can be asked during the interview portion.
Fans on Reddit were bothered that the story was selected since some people wait decades to get on Jeopardy!
One person wrote in a thread: “I'm surprised the show considers 'I screen calls from unknown numbers, so there was a brief delay before the Jeopardy! team got in touch with me' such a riveting story that they've chosen it to be featured so many times now.
"Nothing against the contestants, who are obviously being given limited prompts, but it seems to me that much of the life has been drained from the interview segments this season."
Another fan wrote: “Isn't there a way to have 'Jeopardy!' show up in recipients' caller ID?
"I realize scammers are able to do that, but at least prospective contestants would know to take the call."
A third wrote: “Do the casting folks not reach out via text and/or email as well? Is it really only a phone call?"
A contestant last month also told Ken he ignored "three calls" from Jeopardy! as it was an unknown number and he’s a “classic millennial."
"Would it kill ya to pick up the phone!?" the host exclaimed then.
Scores going into Final Jeopardy were extremely close, with Brendan at $15,800, Amanda (who only bet $3,000 on the last Daily Double) at $11,000, and Joe at $12,800.
Final Jeopardy! under Global Geology read: “In this nation of 360,000 people, you can walk along the boundaries of the Eurasian & North American tectonic plates.”
Only Joe was correct with Iceland, adding $10,000 with $22,800 and looking happy enough to advance but certainly not thrilled.
'WHAT IS: HE WEARING?'
Joe first appeared last June wearing a form-fitting quarter-zip neon-patterned pullover.
Joe went viral for his outfit since he seemed a little underdressed for Jeopardy!
"Casual Joe," one fan posted on X (formerly Twitter) at the time as another echoed: "Casual Tuesday."
A third wrote: "Ooh no. Clothing is usually irrelevant but a yoga shell suit won't do."
A fourth wrote: "Joe came straight from a bike race."
While a fifth spun up: "Why does joe look like he has jeopardy at 7 and the tour de france at 7:30?"
And yet another fumed: "Whatever the hell Joe is wearing is a disgrace to Jeopardy. Surprised his bike helmet isn’t on the podium."
GET CLUED IN ON CHAMPIONS WILDCARD
Champions Wildcard has invited back a massive 108 past players and is a brand new tournament.
It includes the three winners from the Second Chance Tournament, which kicked off Season 40 last month.
Each leg of the special will feature 27 contestants, with nine quarterfinals, three semifinals, and a two-part final where one winner will emerge.
Then, the slate will be wiped clean, and there will be three more rounds, each running for three weeks.
There will be four winners by the time Champions Wildcard ends on December 18.
Each gets a $100,000 grand prize and a 2023 Tournament of Champions slot.
The 2023 Tournament of Champions begins airing on December 19.
WHERE IS: MAYIM BIALIK?
Aside from not having new contestants or regular episodes, another big change to Season 40 is the co-host arrangement.
Ken is hosting almost the entire season solo, and Mayim Bialik is not involved as it stands.
She bowed out as a member of Saf-Aftra, a big shakeup since she and Ken were tapped to split hosting after Alex Trebek's death in 2020.
"It’s not for me to personally judge anyone else’s decision [but] I am a union supporter," Mayim told Vanity Fair last Friday in her first public statement.
The other major change is the questions.
The game show is re-using clues from past seasons while without its writers, who are returning this week.
Showrunner Michael Davies earlier explained on the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast that it “wouldn’t be fair to have new contestants making their first appearance” on the show with material that isn’t original or that was written pre-strike.
"The material that we’re gonna be using is a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database and material that is being redeployed from multiple, multiple seasons of the show.”
Davies also announced a $1,000 bump in consolation prizes and said that he admires and misses the show’s beloved writers.
The news caused a scathing response from Masters winner James Holzhauer, who took to the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to call out the show at the time.
“If you don’t have time to listen, here’s the executive summary of today’s announcement,” James, 39, wrote, sharing a link to the podcast episode.
“1:00-2:00: Jeopardy’s writers are invaluable and we couldn’t produce the show without them,” he continued.
“2:00-15:00: Here is how we will produce the upcoming season without them.”
WHEN WILL REGULAR EPISODES BE BACK?
Execs also explained the updated timeline on the latest episode of the podcast Inside Jeopardy!.
Even in light of the now-resolved Hollywood Strikes, Mayim nor regular contestants will be back for quite some time.
This 2023 ToC will be longer than in years past and feature its own Second Chance competition, another Champions Wildcard, and finally, the actual ToC.
They shared that tournament play is the "Number one priority" and "We will have 16 weeks of regular episodes at the end of the year."
That means we won't see new contestants until April, with just four months of regular play this year out of 11 months.
One person reacted on Reddit: "Apparently, we're not getting any regular Jeopardy! until April 2024. Nearly two-thirds of this season will be tournaments. So yeah, way, way too much."
"Oh my god, is it really until April? That's absolutely wild," wrote another.
Because Mayim doesn't host tournament play, she will most likely return in April.
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Ken and Mayim were tapped as Alex's replacements in 2022, and they're not the only new faces on the beloved trivia show.
EP Davies took over as showrunner in 2021 after the disgraced Mike Richards was ousted- filling a role that hadn't changed hands before them in 20 years.
