It was such a Mickey Mouse question.
“Jeopardy” fans are steaming over what many deemed the easiest Final Jeopardy ever on Monday’s show.
As the three players headed into the game show’s last round with the category, “Famous Names,” challenger Robbi Ramirez had a commanding lead with $22,400, but it was not a runaway win — challenger P.J. Brennan had $11,400 and defending champ Rachel Clark was still in the mix with $10,200.
Host Ken Jennings read the clue: “In 1966, the year of his death, he shared plans for an experimental prototype community in Florida.”
The answer was “Walt Disney,” which was particularly easy for anyone who knows, as Jennings noted after Clark’s correct answer was revealed. “The experimental prototype community of tomorrow became EPCOT,” he said.
All three contestants had the correct answer, with Ramirez the winner with $22,800, following a relatively conservative wager of $1,400.
Many viewers thought the clue was a no-brainer.
“You guys have got to be kidding, how is this a Final Jeopardy and not a $200 question????” one fan shot back on Twitter after the show posted the question on its official Twitter feed.
“There were AUDIBLE groans in the contestant waiting room for that [Final Jeopardy],” wrote Reddit user Greg Czaja on the platforms r/Jeopardy board. “The Venn diagram of Jeopardy contestants and nerds who know about Disney utopias is a single circle.”
Fan Belinda McCaughey tweeted that the question belonged in another game. “I was thinking it can’t be Walt Disney. That’s a Trivial Pursuit, kids edition level question, never mind Final Jeopardy!” she said.
“I’ve been watching Jeopardy for like 20+ years and I cannot recall an easier Final Jeopardy,” said another fan.
The question at the start of the week had some fans speculating that the show dumbed itself down after last week’s rounds were so challenging that one Final Jeopardy question even stumped Jennings, who before taking over at the podium following the death of Alex Trebek won a record 74 straight games on the program.
Ramirez, the now reigning Jeopardy Champion and a native of Orlando, Florida, said the category threw him off, or he might have had a better payday.
“I would have loved to take that one alone as The Guy from Orlando, but yeah, super easy. Not surprised we all got it,” he posted on Jeopardy Reddit board. “The problem was the insanely broad category (“Famous Names”) that put me on edge. If it had sounded less like it might be any question in the world, I’d have bet more. If it had been “Disney,” or “Theme Parks,” I’d be several thousand dollars richer. But I had the freedom to play it safe, so I did.”
“If I hadn’t gotten this,” he said in a separate post, “they wouldn’t have let me back into Orlando.”
