First, this.... http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/young-jeopardy-contestant-feels-cheated-134339466.html?vp=1 then this... [video=youtube;Qw2bgUqy4vc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw2bgUqy4vc[/video]
That's rough. I don't blame the kid for feeling a little cheated. I don't know if I could spell Emancipation proclamation correct in that situation. And definitely not when I was 12. But I guess it is jeopardy.
Point 1--the ruling was crap. Obviously the kid knew the answer; he was one letter off. Point 2--the outcome of the game would have been no different one way or the other. In my mind, to have been "cheated", one would need to have actually lost out on something. Making an issue of this reeks of entitlement. This kid is going to have issues.
it wasn't the right answer. Not spelled correctly or even phonetically spelled correctly. Jeopardy is the only game show that actually celebrates actual intellect. The kid got it wrong and should not win the game based on a wrong answer. How would you feel if you were one of the other kids who would have won except that Jeopardy gave the answer to the dyslexic kid. I understand for the sake of good press, Jeopardy might do something for the kid who came so close to winning, but he should not get to win based on a wrong answer. Jeopardy could invite him back to compete again, or give him $5K or something like that.
Since Alex obviously doesn't know how to spell it correctly either (his comment was "you put a p in there, proclamation, that's unfortunate"), Jeopardy looks like an ass for docking the kid. An extra "t" was the extra letter. The "p" is correct. According to their rules, which often allow mis-spellings that are phonetically correct, he could have spelled it praughkluhmayshun and been correct.
Itf yotu catn loset tby ntot answerintg tin thte fortm otf at questtion, dto ytou treally thitnk throwitng exttra constonants ist gointg tto gett thet jtob donet?
The rule seems to be misspelling is ok as long as it doesn't change the pronunciation of the word. In this case, it did change the pronunciation. We all know he knew the answer. He didn't give the right answer.. Bummer