Latest news with #KristinSausville
Daily Mail
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Jeopardy! champion slams new winner's false record as contestant breaks his silence
Former Jeopardy! champion Kristin Sausville has called out the false claims that a recent contestant broke a record on the show this week. Jason Singer was crowned winner on Tuesday - four years after his wife, Susan McMillan, also achieved the same victory. It was initially reported on the internet that the pair made the special milestone of being the first couple to both be champions on the hit game show. But it was soon revealed the record had already been broken years earlier. Kristin - who won back in 2015 - jumped to her Facebook page on Wednesday to remind fans that her husband Justin had also been a champion before her. However, she then pointed out that another couple - Dan Pawson and Andrea Saenz - had first broken the record. Pawson won in 2007 and Saenz three years later. Singer has since broken his silence on the incident to issue an apology and said that he feels 'terribly' over the mistake. In a lengthy post on Facebook, Sausville corrected the matter while also voicing concerns over AI and ChatGPT. 'There is something really surreal and honestly kind of sinister in watching part of yourself be erased in real time,' she began. 'Maybe you've seen an article in the past day or two about how one of the Jeopardy! contestants last night had a wife who was a J! champion, and was hoping he would win so they could be the first married champions in J! history.' Kristin added, 'Well. If you're friends with me, you're probably aware that both Justin and I won; Justin in 2011 and me in 2015. But we weren't even the first. As far as I've been able to research, Dan Pawson and Andrea Saenz were the first.' She explained that there had been a number of other couples that had been champions before Singer as well. The former Jeopardy! winner called out the lack of accuracy and said, 'Now that the bots have the story, it would be impossible to correct them all even if I cared enough to take the time to do so.' Sausville concluded that she is 'really bothered by seeing how quickly misinformation can be spread and accepted as truth. We should keep that in mind for everything we see online and particularly via AI.' And on Thursday, Jason Singer apologized after it was falsely believed both he and his wife had broken the record. He told Entertainment Weekly: 'After I heard from other players via Facebook that there had been a handful of previously married champions, I felt terribly. 'We always told media and other people it was anecdotal and that 'Jeopardy!' didn't track that stat.' Singer added that he respects the show as well as the contestants 'and would never want to hurt them or diminish their accomplishments in any way. On both of those fronts, I obviously came up short here.' Jason said that champions such as Kristen and previous couple winners 'deserve all the plaudits in the world because winning on 'Jeopardy!' means you're an interesting, curious, engaged human who's worked really hard and performed incredibly under a lot of pressure.' Singer then shared he has made the clarifications to outlets and personally reached out to Sausville. 'I sincerely hope one day there's a Couples Tournament for all couples who have succeeded on Jeopardy, so she and others have a chance to go back on and get even more plaudits, recognition and even more chances to show off their amazing mind.' He finished his statement with, 'I feel really grateful to be a tiny part of such a special, loving and brilliant community, and I hope that by apologizing and trying to correct the record, I've taken a small step toward healing anyone I hurt.' Singer added that he respects the show as well as the contestants 'and would never want to hurt them or diminish their accomplishments in any way. On both of those fronts, I obviously came up short here' Singer became one of the champions on the game show on Tuesday and reflected on the win, per WMUR ABC. The contestant said, 'To do something that my wife did and share this accomplishment with her is really cool.' McMillan also shared her excitement by adding, 'I had such an amazing experience. And so I was really glad that Jason got to share in that, too. And I'm so proud of him.' And on Wednesday, the pair appeared in a joint interview on Good Morning America to open up about Singer's win this week. In regards to advice that she gave her husband, Susan said, 'I told him he really needs to be on point with the buzzer timing. Everyone there knows pretty much all the information.' Jason also gave a sweet shout out to his wife and past contestant. 'Just the fact of being her husband is the greatest preparation one could ever get, because she's so curious and surrounds herself with such interesting and cosmopolitan things all the time that by osmosis, I almost had to get better.' The NBC game show is currently airing its 41st season on the network - and is being hosted by Ken Jennings.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The controversy over the champion ‘Jeopardy' couple: A brief explainer
On Tuesday, Jason Singer won $22,401 on Jeopardy four years after his wife, Susan McMillan, claimed a $35,600 cash prize of her own. Several media outlets celebrated the couple as the show's first married champions. It turns out, they weren't. Here's a brief explainer on how the sweet story turned sour. More from Gold Derby Kesha's 'Period': What critics are saying about the singer's first independent album Michael Madsen remembered: All his Oscar-nominated films, from 'WarGames' to 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' Before Singer's win, publications were touting the history-making potential. For example, a June 30 headline from People proclaimed: "Married Jeopardy! Contestants Hope to Be First Husband and Wife Winners: 'History Is at Stake'" Then after his win, ABC's Good Morning America ran a segment on the couple with a slight caveat, stating on air, "The Jeopardy team is confirming that Jason and Susan may just be the first-ever already married Jeopardy champions." When George Stephanopoulos questioned the use of the word "may" in the statement, Lara Spencer responded that the game show doesn't do "deep dives into last names or private lives in that regard." Meanwhile, past married winners began to grumble about the inaccurate news reports, beginning with 2015 winner Kristin Sausville, who is married to 2011 champ Justin Sausville. She took to Facebook on Wedenesday and wrote that she was "really bothered" by the misinformation. "There is something really surreal and honestly kind of sinister in watching part of yourself be erased in real time," she said. She has since received an outpouring of support on social media. Sausville added, "The local media for the guy last night took up the story and ran with it, and then other media picked it up and ran it without checking for accuracy, and now it's everywhere. Now that the bots have the story, it would be impossible to correct them all, even if I cared enough to take the time to do so. I'm sure it's a matter of weeks before AI like ChatGPT and Google will give you them as the answer to the question, based on the sheer volume of bot activity. It's really Orwellian to watch how easily it's happening." She summed up her feelings by stating, "At the end of the day, I'm not all 'but my LEGACY!' about it, but I am really bothered by seeing how quickly misinformation can be spread and accepted as truth. We should keep that in mind for everything we see online and particularly via AI." A rep for Jeopardy has confirmed that the show does not track such records and said that other coupled winners aside from the Suasvilles have since been identified. Singer, a real estate agent from Portland, Maine, has acknowledged that he and his wife have not made history. He told the Portland Press Herald. "Jeopardy doesn't track every married couple that's ever been on, but they've written about a bunch on their website. Whether we're the first, the second, or the first in a long time, I just think it's a really cool accomplishment." "Just the fact of being her husband is the greatest preparation one could ever get," Singer said of his wife. "She's so curious and surrounds herself with such interesting and cosmopolitan things all the time, that by osmosis I almost had to get better." His final answer on the show notably included a hashtag to #BringBackSusan. On Thursday, Gold Derby checked in with Gemini, Google's artificial intelligence program, and it accurately stated that "there have been several married couples" to win the show, and even mentions the "incorrect" reporting regarding Singer and McMillan. A victory for truth! Other married winners include Dan Pawson and Andrea Saenz, Amy Stephenson and Scott Bateman, and David Rigsby and Ryan Alley. Meanwhile, ChatGPT claims that the first married couple to win on Jeopardy is Kristin and Justin Sausville — oops! That's not correct, as their victories were in the 2010s, while Pawson and Saenz triumphed in the 2000s. To date, Jeopardy has created six millionaires: Ken Jennings (who has hosted the show since 2023), Brad Rutter, James Holzhauer, Matt Amodio, Amy Schneider, and Yogesh Raut. See the list of Jeopardy's biggest winners ever. Merv Griffin's iconic American game show originally debuted in 1964. Unlike other programs in the genre, Jeopardy's contestants are presented with general knowledge clues in the form of answers and must respond in the form of questions. The modern-day syndicated version produced by Sony Pictures Television launched in 1984 and continues to air. Best of Gold Derby Cristin Milioti, Amanda Seyfried, Michelle Williams, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actress interviews Paul Giamatti, Stephen Graham, Cooper Koch, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actor interviews Lee Jung-jae, Adam Scott, Noah Wyle, and the best of our Emmy Drama Actor interviews Click here to read the full article.
