Sometimes, a very public error requires a very public apology. Jeopardy! producer Michael Davies addressed a pretty big production error during last week’s High School Reunion Tournament, even going so far as to admit, “We totally blew it.”
The long-running game show was slammed by viewers for revealing the final scores during the first two minutes of Wednesday night’s (March 8) episode. Fans called the mistake a “an inexcusable production error.”
During the broadcast, host Mayim Bialik was introducing the first half of the two-part finals when the camera cut to the three contestants standing behind their boards, which presented their final scores.
At the end of the episode, it was confirmed that the scores on the boards reflected the contestants’ winnings.
On this week’s episode of the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, Davies owned up to the mistake. “Right off the bat, apologies to the entire audience. We totally blew it at the top of the show. We made a horrible error where we revealed the final scores at the end in the opening cutaway shot during Mayim’s monologue,” he said, per Newsweek.
The producer blamed the blunder on “a series of errors” and the expansion of the show’s franchise. First, Davies explained that the mistake occurred because they decided to re-shoot the opening monologue at the end of the episode.
He shared, “We do occasionally pick up monologues for some reason. Sometimes there’s a fact that’s incorrect. Sometimes there’s just a performance issue. So we pick it up at the end of the show.”
However, the production team did not follow “standard protocol” during the re-shoot.
“Of course, it should be standard procedure—and it is supposed to be standard procedure—that we take the scores in the podiums back to the original level, but it didn’t happen. This was then not caught in [post-production], and it was not caught in the final [quality control]. There are so many elements that should check this,” the producer explained.
Davies continued to express that “everybody involved” is upset about the mistake. “We take these mistakes to heart so hard. The self-flagellation that happens across the senior management team and the post team and everybody involved,” he added.
Addressing the expansion bit, which sees the franchise rebooting Celebrity Jeopardy! and rolling out a Second Chance tournament and a Masters tournament, Davies suggested that the production team is under pressure.
He said, “We’re making more episodes, people are working more hours, and so that does lead to mistakes. But still no excuse for this. This was too basic. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Now that the High School Reunion tournament has come to an end, Bialik is switching hosting duties with Ken Jennings, who will continue his run through April 28. Bialik will take over on May 1 and continue hosting throughout the summer.