After just getting over a “major editing glitch” that accidentally led to an entire episode being spoiled, Jeopardy! fans have already moved on to a new controversy involving prolific actor Ewan McGregor. However, for a change of pace, this particular fiasco does not involve his fan-favorite role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. Instead, it involves one of McGregor’s lesser-known films.
The incident went down during Monday’s episode when contestant Melissa Klapper fielded a $600 clue during the final round of the game.
“The force of Lasse Hallström was strong to pull in this Scot to play a fisheries expert in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” host Ken Jennings read to which Klapper quickly buzzed in and responded, “Who is Ewan McGregor?”
While McGregor is correct, Jeopardy! fans exploded on social media with accusations that Klapper mispronounced the actor’s name and actually said “Who is Ewan Gregor?” Some even went so far as to tag Jennings on Twitter.
Via Newsweek:
“Anyone else notice that Melissa gave a response of ‘Ewan Gregor’ instead of Ewen MCGregor on tonight’s episode of #Jeopardy? Clearly the judges didn’t,” another viewer said.
One fan opted to directly address Jennings on his Twitter account, writing: “Hi Ken, on tonight’s Jeopardy, Kelly answered ‘Ewan Gregor’ to the question about Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and was given the points when the answer should have been Ewan McGregor. Were the scores ever corrected?”
You can see a video of what appears to be Klapper’s alleged mistake below:
Clearly wrong. @Jeopardy this needs to be corrected!! pic.twitter.com/XWTRWvRDoL
— Umass Dave (@sportsnut11112) March 21, 2023
As the controversy escalated, Reddit users came to Klapper’s aid and noted that, while it sounds like she mispronounced the name, “the judges have a direct feed to the contestants’ microphone which we don’t hear when the sound gets mixed for television, and they heard something different.”
Sure enough, a close examination of the YouTube footage at slow speed showed “the ‘Mc’ is definitely there but barely audible.” Newsweek also reviewed the footage at the same speed, and it “showed that Klapper did say McGregor’s last name correctly and in full during the round.”
It looks like the Force was with her.
(Via Newsweek)