'Jeopardy!' Issues Apology Following Erroneous Medical Clue: Not The First Time!
"Jeopardy!" asked its viewers understanding and forgiveness after it faced massive blunder over a medical term.
The Monday's episode of the game show turned into chaos when current guest host Savannah Guthrie mentioned a clue for the category Plain-Named Maladies.
"Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome is also known as Grinch Syndrome because this organ is too small," she said. However, the show made a big mistake after it referenced the disease as "Grinch syndrome" and relating it with having a small heart.
Because of this, their viewers called them out and demanded an apology.
On the show's official Twitter account, it ultimately offered an apology especially to the POTS community who got affected by the error the most.
"Yesterday's program included a clue about postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). After hearing from the community, we found we used an outdated and inaccurate term for this disorder, and we apologize," the statement says.
Some viewers accepted its apology, saying that the issue should have not taken that far. Meanwhile, other people still urged "Jeopardy!" to explain why the term made it on air.
Twitter users also questioned the show's ways in making sure the same mistake will not happen again. But as of the writing, "Jeopardy!" has not released another statement yet.
Their official statement came after fans called the show out for airing misinformation. The non-profit organization Dysautonomia International also accused the show of using a misogynistic term that hurt the POTS community.
Not The First Mistake?
It was not the first time "Jeopardy!" got into hot waters for using a sensitive term.
Previously, Ken Jennings once posted controversial and offensive tweets. Before he became the game show's interim host, his 2014 tweet emerged again and caused him to face backlash.
The insensitive tweet read, "Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair."
After facing backlash, Jennings said his sorry through his Twitter account and apologized for the offensive tweets he has ever posted.
"In the past, I'd usually leave bad tweets up just so they could be dunked on. At least that way, they could lead to smart replies and even advocacy," he wrote in one of his tweets. "Deleting them felt like whitewashing a mistake."
Even after suffering from criticisms, Jennings still keeps the tweet on his Twitter account but assured his followers to learn from that mistake.
