Why did Ben Chan wanted to scream on Jeopardy! sets? The 9-day champion opens up about Ken Jennings' clothing rules

Nine-day Jeopardy! champion Ben Chan recently opened up about some of the clothing rules that were to be followed by host Ken Jennings on the sets of the show. The Wisconsin-based philosophy professor revealed that when he first met Ken as a contestant, the latter was wearing a Uniqlo blazer.

Jennings further shared that they (the show producers) would not let him do the show while wearing the informal garment, after which he had to wear a suit. As it is now, he is always seen wearing suits every time while hosting Jeopardy!. However, it was at that point that Chan wanted to scream the same but restrained himself from doing it. Taking to Twitter, he asked Ken to “consider it screamed” after posting about the incident.

Another contestant told Better.net that there were strict rules for clothing, even for the players. In some of the pre-show documents, they were asked not to wear white tops, olive-colored tops, or any clothing with busy patterns.

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Ben Chan's winning streak on Jeopardy! ended with a silly mistake

Jeopardy! champion Ben Chan won two games in April before going home due to medical issues. After returning in May, he easily dethroned eight-day-champion Hannah Wilson and won seven more games in a row. However, he spelled one of the final questions wrong, replacing Benedick with Benedict in the 10th game.

Host Mayim Bialik’s question was:

"Both of the names of these 2 lovers in a Shakespeare play come from Latin words for 'blessed.'"

None of Chan’s competitors knew the right answer, and one of them even wrote incomplete response of "Romeo and Juliet." Ben chose another version of the title, writing in his board - "Beatrice & Benedict Benedict."

Mayim then announced that the right word was "Benedick" and not "Benedict." As such, he was left with just $5199 in his account after the round, so he ended up in the second place. Danny won the competition with $11,800 winnings. Chan did not say anything at the time but slammed the table in disappointment.

Later in a tweet made on May 25, Chan explained that Benedict was historically accepted as another form of the same name. Also, according to the rules, any spelling or grammatical error is to be ignored in the responses.

The Jeopardy! executives clarified that:

"Written responses to the Final Jeopardy! clue do not have to be spelled correctly, but they must be phonetically correct and not add or subtract any extraneous sounds or syllables."

Since "Ben" added another sound into the word, he was defeated. Chan also revealed that his wife told the correct word was "Bendick" and not "Benedict. Chan will now be seen in September's Tournament of Champions, where he will compete against other plays who won more than five games in a row.

Moreover, in the podcast Inside Jeopardy!, executive producer Michael Davies shared that he knew “enough” about the category and the alternate spellings of the characters. It was an original spelling, but the judges were confident in their ruling. Michael saw Benedict had written for multiple publications and said:

"Nothing that would be formal or reputable, but I saw it enough that I thought okay this is a question."

The scholars gathered for another meeting where all of them uniformly agreed that the character was indeed Benedick. They did, however, call him a “power player” and are now waiting for his next competition.

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Jeopardy! airs on KABC-TV every weekday at 7 pm ET.