A ‘Jeopardy’ Contestant Thought A Video Of Janet Jackson Was Ariana Grande

By now, we know pop culture moments appearing on Jeopardy! are a lot harder for some contestants than most people watching at home might expect. The wide variety of topics that might come up on the show means studying well for the syndicated trivia show is more of a shallow dip than a deep dive, and quite frankly, it seems major pop culture moments, sports and music often get overlooked by contestants who spend more time brushing up on the British monarchy or something more studious.

Fresh off of one Jeopardy! contestant confusing Chaka Khan with a warrior from the 1800s, Wednesday’s show featured a video category with clips from the Billboard Music Awards. And things were going great until one contestant thought that Janet Jackson was Ariana Grande. You can watch the full category play out above, but the $800 question is where everything went off the rails. Here’s the question:

The video was clearly showing Jackson performing “Nasty” at the Billboard Awards, and though the camera was a bit zoomed out, the 1986 song is clearly playing. But it wasn’t enough for Alwin Hui, who perhaps saw the top ponytail and immediately said “Ariana Grande.”

Sarah got the answer correctly after a quick “no” from show host Alex Trebek, but plenty of music aficionados noticed the gaffe.

https://twitter.com/bryannasmith/status/1255642026248454145

Interestingly, Alwin’s name appears to be sandwiched between a basketball, so perhaps music is just his weakness and he’s a big sports fan. He probably would have fared much better with the football category that stumped less sports-inclined contestants a few years back but, them’s the breaks.