Some Jeopardy! fans have a new beef with host Ken Jennings. The former champ has taken to repeating a particular acronym during the current Invitational Tournament that some viewers find grating. And they’ve taken to social media to express their frustration.
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On April 5, thousands of people tuned in to watch finalists Victoria Groce, Amy Schneider, and Andrew He compete in the first round of the Invitational Tournament finals—the first of its kind in Jeopardy! history. The tournament stacks former finalists against one another to compete for $100,000 and an invitation to Jeopardy! Masters Season 2.
After last Friday’s game, Schneider is currently leading the pack with one win (and $30,000) under her belt, per Jeopardy!‘s official website. She only has to clench one more win to be crowned the first ever Invitational Tournament champion. Her advancement in the game, as well as He’s, has been perceived as somewhat of a controversy by fans, as the pair just recently competed as finalists on the 2022 Tournament of Champions (ToC) and Masters Season 1. Nonetheless, fans have seemingly moved past it, and are now taking umbrage with an “annoying” hosting habit of Jennings’.
The show’s abbreviation for Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, JIT, has rubbed many the wrong way. But more specifically, fans are fed up with Jennings repeatedly using the acronym on camera. On X, followers voiced their opinions on the matter loud and clear, calling for Jennings to remove JIT from his vocabulary altogether.
“I need Ken Jennings to stop saying ‘JIT’ expeditiously,” one X user demanded. Another person said, “That term ‘JIT’ is annoying.”
“Ken Jennings stop calling it the ‘JIT,'” a Jeopardy! fan wrote, to which someone else jokingly responded, “Time to make it a drinking game! Everytime [sic] he says it, take 3 shots! Then, you will be too drunk to care anymore haha.”
Meanwhile, others embodied their inner Regina George, referencing a famous Mean Girls quote. “Oh please, @KenJennings please stop trying to make ‘jit’ happen on @Jeopardy It’s just not fetch,” one said.
“I don’t mind that they’re having an invitational tournament, I just don’t like the use of ‘jit’ Just sayin’,” reads another post. Elsewhere on X, an user referred to Jennings’ use of JIT as “cringy.” And still another wrote, “Please stop calling the tournament ‘JIT’, Jeopardy. It’s not working,” they wrote.
As of this writing, Jennings hasn’t publicly addressed viewers’ outrage about the term “JIT”—fans will have to tune in to the rest of the tournament to see if he tweaks his vocabulary over the criticism.