LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Hannah Wilson’s life on ‘Jeopardy!’ was nothing short of a trip to Disneyland until the show decided to put her up against a returning champion who had been resting and recovering from COVID. Hannah was on an eight-day winning run on the show amassing a whopping $229,801 and a lot of love and adoration from the fans. But Ben returned after a short hiatus with a three-day total of $69,001 and spoiled it all for her.
Ben’s return was earmarked for a May 15 episode with Hannah and Wendy Swanson, a retired teacher from Portland, Oregon playing against him. His return was not purposefully scheduled for that particular day but it ended Hannah’s streak. Ben was utterly dominant throughout the game and entered Final Jeopardy with $41,000, while was left in his wake with a mere $6,800. In the end, Ben ended with a four-day total of $129,001. Hannah exchanged a brief smile with Ben after the game, accepting her defeat. But the fans of the show weren’t as willing and gracious as Hanna. They called out the unfair treatment towards Hannah and questioned the motives of the executives to pit two co-champions against each other. They believed that Hannah’s defeat was a decision of bad scheduling decisions by the show’s executives and demanded answers. Their prayers were answered but not satisfactorily.
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'No fair way to bring back a co-champion'
Sarah Foss, the host of Inside Jeopardy podcast addressed the issue of Hannah and Ben during the May 22, 2023, episode, ‘What is Jeopardy! Masters Week 2?’ In the podcast, Sarah stated, “I just want to remind everyone again. I know there was a lot of commentary about how it was ‘so unfair to Hannah to have her go up against Ben. As Ben himself has said, he did have Covid, he was unable to travel so we had to wait until we could rebook him on the next set of tape days. When that was possible he was weeks in advance before we knew who would be playing, who the champion would be.”
She further added, “There’s really no fair way to bring back a co-champion. I know people said you should wait until the end of Hannah’s run and then bring him in, but then you're manipulating the competition.” Sarah concluded by mentioning that Ben and Hannah were both booked before anyone knew who the champion would be.
'They should’ve waited'
When fans learned of this explanation, they weren’t fully satisfied. One Twitter user clearly said, “They should’ve waited until Hannah’s run was over until they brought Ben back. Not fair.” The former Jeopardy champion also made his voice heard on the matter. “I think it's unfair when any returning champion has to play another returning champion. The format of the show is for the champ to play against two new players.” But he realized that the executives’ hands were tied. “But as I said, there's not a whole lot they can do about it.” A fan was adamant that the show needs a new process. “I feel like they need a new process for bringing back a winner later in the season. Letting Ben loose on Hannah didn’t seem fair to the “sitting champ”.”
But there were a few voices that defended the show. One user said, “I think is fair. They scheduled Ben’s return before Hannah came on the show and started going on a streak. Let’s try to celebrate people’s victory.” Another mentioned that “Disagree-consider Hannah may never have been a champ at all if Ben hadn’t taken a break.”
It would be too far-fetched to say that Karma has played its part since Ben Chan ended his winning streak of nine games in ‘Jeopardy!'
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