Jeopardy has been forced to apologize for a controversial ruling regarding the birthplace of Jesus. In a recent episode, a question was asked about the location of the Church of Nativity in the category “Where is that Church”?
Defending champion Katie Needle quickly buzzed in and answered, “What is Palestine?”
While that should have been the correct answer, a confused Needle was told that her answer was incorrect and the $200 was later awarded to a contestant who buzzed in with the answer “What is Israel?”
That led to an uproar on social media.
Here is the video of the controversial moment.
Unacceptable!! Bethlehem is in the Palestinian territories which Israel illegally occupies (Katie Needle got the correct answer & was robbed). @Jeopardy owes an apology for endorsing Israel's universally-condemned illegal takeover of Palestinian lands.pic.twitter.com/Ym99YziM4k
— Omar Baddar (@OmarBaddar) January 11, 2020
Since the debate was sparked on social media, Jeopardy has issued an apology and claimed that the question was included in the episode due to error.
“In the process of taping this clue, ‘BUILT IN THE 300s A.D., THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY’ we became aware that the clue was flawed as written and that determining an acceptable response would be problematic,” the show said in a statement. “In accordance with our rules and in the interest of fairness, we voided the clue and threw it out.
“Unfortunately, through human error in post-production, the uncorrected version of the game was broadcast. We regret the error and we will make every effort to ensure this never happens again,”
Did Jeopardy make the right decision? Sound off in the comments section below with your thoughts.