‘Jeopardy’ scandal erupts as past married champions deny new milestone

What is: misinformation?

Jason Singer was thrilled when he became a Jeopardy champion on Tuesday four years after his wife, Susan McMillan, earned the same distinction — but they’re far from the first married couple to achieve such a milestone.

After several outlets reported that Singer and McMillan were the first-ever married contestants to win the iconic game show after tying the knot, multiple past champions called out the media for spreading inaccurate info about the show’s history.

Kristin Sausville, who won the show five times in 2015 and is married to fellow champion Justin Sausville, posted a message on Facebook decrying the inaccurate reporting surrounding Singer’s win.

“There is something really surreal and honestly kind of sinister in watching part of yourself be erased in real time,” she wrote. “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. Well. If you’re friends with me, you’re probably aware that both Justin and I won; Justin in 2011 and me in 2015.” (The official Jeopardy Facebook and Tumblr accounts acknowledged the couple’s victories during Kristin’s tenure on the show.)

Sausville went on to note that she and her husband weren’t the first married champs in Jeopardy history either, highlighting other victorious couples including Dan Pawson and Andrea Saenz and David Rigsby and Ryan Alley.

“I’m sure it’s a matter of weeks before AI like ChatGPT and Google will give you [Singer and McMillan] as the answer to the question, based on the sheer volume of bot activity,” she continued. “It’s really Orwellian to watch how easily it’s happening. Like 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.”

In a comment on a separate post, Rigsby called out incorrect reporting on the same topic. “They are not the first married Jeopardy couple,” he wrote on Facebook. “There have been at least a half-dozen. Simple Internet search would reveal that.”

A representative for Jeopardy told Entertainment Weekly that the show does not track spousal records for contestants and acknowledged that several contestants had noted that they were also married to champs after Singer’s victory.

Additionally, although Singer initially believed that he and McMillan were the first married couple to emerge victorious on the show, he told the Portland Press Herald that this isn’t the case. 

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“It’s anecdotal. Jeopardy doesn’t track every married couple that’s ever been on, but they’ve written about a bunch on their website,” he said. “Whether we’re the first, the second, or the first in a long time, I just think it’s a really cool accomplishment.”