KEN Jennings has apologized to a Jeopardy! fan after tearing them to social media shreds on Thursday.
All eyes are on the G.O.A.T. champion as he's replacing Mayim Bialik entirely this coming season.
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The fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Can you use your phone on Jeopardy?"
The user then Daily Doubled-down on the silly question and asked: "@KenJennings I could do it. Can I use my phone?"
Ken, 49, wrote back: "Yeah… to call an Uber after you lose!!"
The winningest contestant-turned-host then felt bad for roasting the fan, and ostensibly for bringing up that Jeopardy! doesn't pay for contestants' travel expenses.
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In a second post, Ken added, "Sorry, that was mean."
"This is the meanest thing I've ever heard Ken say," one fan half-joked in reply.
Ken regularly responds to fans' misgivings on social media directly on his extremely active Twitter account.
CELEBRITY JEOPARDY! EXIT
Mayim declined to host Celebrity Jeopardy! this season, it was announced on Monday.
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Ken will host the ABC special and nightly episodes for the foreseeable future.
Mayim bowed out to continue to support the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Variety reported.
Mayim hosted the entirety of the special last year -which returned for the first time since 2015 and without Alex Trebek.
Mayim and Ken were both tagged as the new game show co-hosts after the death of Alex.
While it's no secret fans and contestants largely prefer Ken for the syndicated show, people praised the Big Bang Theory star for finding her wheelhouse with her fellow celebs.
The changeup marks Ken's first time to host all programming for Jeopardy! and signals that Mayim may be staying off the board until the dual Hollywood strikes end.
Celebrity Jeopardy! will premiere on Wednesday, September 27 at 8 p.m.
MAYIM'S RETURN DATE IS UNKNOWN
Meanwhile, nightly Jeopardy! is now on summer hiatus and will return on September 11.
Ken will likely be the only one at the host podium there, too, until 2024, if not longer.
Last week filming began, and Mayim shared she was at the hospital getting a colonoscopy.
Mayim was also cryptically left out of a Jeopardy! promo photo last week, whether the snub was intentional or not.
Ken has received backlash for continuing to work on the show, with some people calling him a "scab" - a term for someone who crosses a union picket line.
A disgruntled fan posted to X: "Ken Jennings, you're a disgrace if you're trying to cross picket lines.
"Alex [Trebek] would NEVER do anything of the sort. He would turn over his grave seeing you act like that."
Ken responded with a screenshot of a statement previously shared by a Jeopardy! spokesperson, standing by the show moving forward without its writers.
"'Jeopardy!' has a long history with and tremendous respect for the WGA and our writers. We have always been careful to honor our WGA agreement, and we would never air game material not created by WGA (Writer's Guild of America) writers," the statement, which was shared with The Hollywood Reporter, began.
Ken chose to highlight the next section, implying his decisions were no different from Alex's.
“However, just as we did, led by Alex Trebek, during the 2007-2008 strike, we will deliver first-run episodes again this fall.”
NO WRITERS, NO PROBLEM
In addition to Ken being the only host, some massive changes have been made amid the strike.
In July, Jeopardy! announced the previously scheduled 39th season of the Tournament of Champions would not debut in the fall, fan favorites like Ben Chan and Cris Pannullo won't be back until the strikes end.
Instead, Season 40 will consist of recycled questions from past seasons and former contestants from year's back instead of new ones.
Executive producer Michael Davies explained on an episode of the official podcast Inside Jeopardy! why no new contestants will be on the show during the strike.
"I believe, principally, that it would not be fair to have new contestants making their first appearance on the Alex Trebek stage, doing it with non-original material or, as we'll talk about, a combination of non-original material and material that was written pre-strike.
"Our current plan is to go into a holding pattern of sorts, pushing back the season 39 postseason to first produce original episodes featuring the best of our WGA written material."
Because of this, Season 40 will open with a Second Chance tournament of former Season 37 and Season 38 contestants.
However, multiple former contestants have claimed to have turned down invitations to return in solidarity with the strike.
Moreover, the decision to reuse questions concerned fans since contestants can memorize the online archive of previous material.
That said, Season 2 of Celebrity Jeopardy! will be comprised of new material written before the strike.
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The writer's strike has been ongoing since the beginning of May.
In 2022, when Mayim and Ken were named co-hosts of the long-running show, it was explained that Mayim would handle the celebrity spinoff, they'd switch off on the nightly show, and Ken would handle the Tournament of Champions.
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