Make it a real daily disaster, Alex. Peril! contestants often train for years before appearing on the quiz show, but sometimes they still find themselves in the middle of a wild moment.
Same Ken Jenningswho holds the longest winning streak ever Peril!, missed a response or two. During his first race in 2004, one of his most memorable mistakes occurred while answering a question in the “Tool Time” category.
“This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker,” read late host Alex Trebek. Jennings, who had a commanding lead at the time, chimed in with the answer, “What’s a hoe?” As the audience started laughing, Trebek joked, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! They teach you that in school in Utah, huh? ” (The hunt co-host graduated from Brigham Young University in the state.)
the funny planet the author later found himself at the center of a Peril! controversy when some of his old tweets resurfaced just before he began his first stint as a guest host for the show following Trebek’s death in November 2020. “Nothing sadder than a sexy person in wheelchair,” read a tweet Jennings posted in 2014.
The former software engineer apologized for the messages, saying they “worked like jokes” in his mind but didn’t read so well on screen. “Sometimes I’ve said stupid things in a stupid way and want to apologize to the people who were (rightly!) offended,” he tweeted in December 2020. Wasn’t my intention to hurt anyone, but that doesn’t matter; I messed up and I’m so sorry.
Peril! proceeded to Jennings’ concert as a guest host, but the the wall street journal later reported that the tweets may have cost him a job as Trebek’s permanent replacement. In August 2021, Sony Pictures announced that executive producer Michael Richards would take over as permanent host of the syndicated game show, but Richards stepped down days later after several of his own controversies.
After Richards left, Maim Bialik, who had been announced as the host of the primetime and spin-off specials, began acting as the show’s acting host. the The Big Bang Theory alum has since alternated with Jennings, who is still the show’s consulting producer. As of April 2022, Sony had still not announced a permanent host for the syndicated program.
Keep scrolling to look back at some of the craziest and most controversial moments from Peril! the story.
