If you're new, Subscribe! → good game show is a well-oiled, million-dollar machine, built to ensure both fun and fairness. Ken Jennings, the longest-running Jeopardy! Champion in the history of the game show, who won 74 straight Jeopardy games in a row, has been accused of cheating by producers of the popular series.
- What Game Show Caught Up In Cheating Scandals
- What Game Show Caught Up In Cheating Scandal Caught
- What Game Show Caught Up In Cheating Scandal Lori Loughlin
BURBANK, California –
Ken Jennings, the longest-running Jeopardy! champion in the history of the game show, who won 74 straight Jeopardy games in a row, has been accused of cheating by producers of the popular series. After pouring over hours of taped footage, producers have made a spectacular discovery, and they say they are asking for the astounding $3,196,300 Jennings won during his run back.
“After receiving an anonymous tip from someone who only identified themselves as Hal, we decided to do an investigation,” said Brad Butters, executive producer of Jeopardy! “After going over hours of game footage, along with backstage footage of Ken in our green room, certain patterns became clear to us. Mr. Jennings, who spent over 125 hours in our sound studio never once used the bathroom, and in our green room – where contestants spend most of their time – Jennings never once ate or drank anything from our free buffet. This seemed extremely odd to us.”
“Game footage revealed that, despite being under bright studio lights, Ken never once blinked or had a drop of sweat anywhere on his brow,” said Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. “As the producers researched his footage, they also noticed that in game 53 of Ken’s winning streak, competing contestant Brenda Bush was having a sort of ‘wardrobe malfunction’ that caused many nip-slips, and he never even once glanced over to her. I say that it definitely proves that Ken Jennings is not a man at all, and that he must be an android being.”
“By the rules of the game, Ken cheated. Line 43 of the Jeopardy application clearly states that all contestants must be human, and that any sort of cyborg or android beings are strictly prohibited,” said Butters. “We have made numerous calls to Ken to get back our $3 million dollars, but all we get when we call him is that annoying fax machine-type sound you used to get prior to everyone having a cell phone.”
“Being accused of cheating does not compute,” said Jennings in a statement to the Associated Press when news of the possible scandal reached his home. “I was not programmed to cheat, therefore I cannot. It’s not a possibility. Thus ends my comments on the accusations, as it is time for me to recharge.”
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The University of Alberta has charged 40 students from two introductory computing science courses with cheating.
Many of the students were enrolled with an online tutoring company, an operation the university describes as a cheating service.
In a Feb. 28 letter to computing science students, the university said the students, from the fall term, 'face significant sanctions.' The U of A warned it would continue to screen all student assignment submissions and 'any students found guilty of cheating will be charged.'
'I think as long as we have education, we're going to have people who are going to try and game the system and we just have to keep up with them,' said Deb Eerkes, the university's director of student conduct and accountability.
'But really, what the university has to be concerned with is maintaining the integrity of the degree.'
Eerkes could not discuss the specific case, but said students typically cheat because they are feeling overwhelmed in some way, or they're feeling pressure to get good grades.
'So it's less about learning the material and more about just making sure that they get the grades,' she said. 'And so they're seeking help from services that do this.'
'A cheating rather than tutoring service'
The Feb. 28 letter said, 'a significant number of students found guilty used the tutoring service Ez4EDU.'
The letter said 'Ez4EDU appears to be operating as a cheating rather than tutoring service' and that some students reported the service provided solutions to lab assignments.
'The students are simply asked to make slight changes before submitting their own,' the letter said, adding later that 'providing solutions is just a way of helping students to cheat.'
The letter also said some computing scientists had provided Ez4EDU staff access to course software 'so that the solutions formulated by the service can be tested before release to students.' That, the letter said, is a violation of the U of A's code of student behaviour.
The Ez4EDU website is ez4edu.com. Written in Chinese, the site is operated by Easy Edu, a Toronto-based tutoring company that has operated since 2014 and claims to be the largest and most influential Chinese education and training institution in Canada.
What Game Show Caught Up In Cheating Scandals
Easy Edu has 'education and training bases' in Kingston, Toronto, Mississauga, Scarborough, London, Waterloo, Hamilton and Edmonton, and lists the University of Alberta as one institution at which it offers its services. It claims to have provided its services to more than 100,000 students in person, and more than 170,000 online.
What Game Show Caught Up In Cheating Scandal Caught
At the University of Alberta it offers tutoring in Introduction to the Foundations of Computation, Introduction to Microeconomics, and introductory courses in chemistry, linguistics, biology, and math.
Easy Edu founder and president Gary Kang flew to Edmonton Monday to deal with the scandal involving his company. Kang told CBC News he is still investigating and can't speculate about what happened.
But he acknowledged the letter from the university caused 'significant reputational harm' to his company and 'we are looking for a way to restore our reputation.'
Eerkes said students caught cheating face a range of sanctions — from being assigned a zero on an assignment and a grade reduction to failing the class, a reprimand that goes on their record, suspension, and, for repeat offenders, expulsion from the university.
What Game Show Caught Up In Cheating Scandal Lori Loughlin
She said 40 cheating students may seem like a lot but she pointed out there are more than 600 students in those two courses.
'We do have to keep dealing with these issues as they pop up and hopefully we're also teaching students, 'Look, you know you should be in this for your education, not just for the grade.'