Jeopardy! viewers are not happy with the show dedicating an entire clue category to Wicked, the new musical fantasy film starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Some said it was nothing more than a “blatant” free ad for the movie.
On Monday night (November 18), Grande and Erivo presented a category about Wicked ahead of the movie’s November 22 wide release. Many fans felt like the clues were vague, especially one presented by the film’s director Jon Chu that ended up costing then reigning champ Paul Clauson.
Taking to the Jeopardy! Reddit forum after the episode, one viewer wrote, “I really hate entire video categories that are timed to promote an upcoming project….like WICKED,” noting that “every time there is an actor or host of an upcoming show or movie I have this nagging feeling that it eats up too much time and then they run out of time later on in the episode.”
The user went on to say, “Ken [Jennings] is obligated to say when viewers can see X movie or show when it hits theaters or airs on whichever network. Again, on Jeopardy every second counts and Ken promoting the movie or show burns through another 3-5 seconds.”
“Always my last [sic] favorite type of category,” agreed another commenter.
“I don’t mind the product placement, since it’s really not that frequent. But dear god the verbosity of these clues is asinine. They had Grande and Erivo filibuster just to ask who is the author of Wizard of Oz?” said another.
Another added, “Yeah, totally agree with you. In the immortal words of Ralphie, “A crummy commercial!” They’re not categories, they’re ads, and they don’t belong in the show.”
“This one really was especially bad even as far as the sponsored categories go,” said one user. “Two answers were just lines of dialogue from the show which, like, good luck stumbling into that if you’re not familiar with the piece, one that’s completely inscrutable if you haven’t been following the marketing for the movie.”
“It wouldn’t have been so bad if the clues weren’t awful,” added another.
“Even as someone really excited for the Wicked movie, yeaaah I really didn’t like the tie-in,” wrote another.
Another fan said, “Got to pay the bills somehow,” implying Jeopardy! makes money from promoting such movies.
However, as another user pointed out, the show’s executive producer, Michael Davies, revealed on the June 17 episode of the Inside Jeopardy! podcast that the show doesn’t get paid for these promotional spots.
“[Jeopardy!] reaches so many people that it’s a very good environment in which to publicize their movies or publicize their TV shows,” Davies explained. “We don’t always say yes. We say yes when editorially it fits within our show or we think it’s going to be something that’s going to advance the game board.”
“No money changes hands,” he claimed. “We have to emphasize that. We never take money in return for putting things on the game board. But we just think that, you know movies, big TV shows represent overall the culture that happens in, even if it’s popular culture, that’s the culture that happens within the world that we ask about. And it gives us the ability to sort of switch things up on the game board.”
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Some fans didn’t buy Davies’ explanation, with one Reddit commenter responding, “Ken full on had a blurb to the camera about the movie being in pictures this Friday. Davies is full of it lol.”
“Perhaps he is “technically” correct; they don’t get paid for putting it on the game board, they get paid for Ken looking at the camera and talking about it for a few seconds,” suggested another.
What did you think about the Wicked category? Do you like when Jeopardy! promotes other projects? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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