Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek is a huge hockey fan. This had to be a tough one for him.
The January 26, 2020, episode of the hit game show Jeopardy! featured a category dedicated to officiating: “Whistleblowers.”
The questions — or, answers, since this is Jeopardy! — dealt with officials and rules-related questions from major sports. It was the $800 question in that category that stumped the contestants.
For $800: “In the NHL, referees call penalties; these officials call offsides & break up fights.”
After a long pause, Greg Kihm, a systems engineer from Washington, D.C., gave it a shot.
“What are umpires..?”
Neither remaining contestant – Signe Peterson Fourmy, a PhD candidate from Austin, Texas, or MacKenzie Jones, a program development director from Tulsa, Oklahoma – buzzed in.
A disappointed Trebek offered the correct response.
“Who are the linesmen. Linesmen.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time Trebek has been embarrased by a contestant’s response to a hockey question.
You can check out the rest of the category over at J-archive.
