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August 5th, 2013
01:08 PM ET
Spelling Error Costs 8th Grader on 'Jeopardy!'
It's being called the saddest moment in Jeopardy history – an 8th grader loses final jeopardy during kids week for misspelling the word "emancipation."
12-year-old Thomas Hurley III correctly answered the question about the Emancipation Proclamation, but because of the misspelling, it was ruled out by host Alex Trebek.
He later told his local newspaper, "I was pretty upset that I was cheated out of the final 'Jeopardy!' question. It was just a spelling error."
Many have pointed out however, that even if Hurley spelled the answer correctly, he would not have won. The boy who did win, 12-year-old Skyler Hornback, set a kids week record, winning $30,000 in one episode.
What do you think? Is is fair Hurley's answer was disqualified?
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He was noted cheated! the rules of jeopardy (which he signed) are that if an answer is misspelled and changes the pronunciation of the word it will be ruled wrong. the way he wrote it, it would be pronounced "e-man-sip-tation" not "e-man-ca-pation" a little harsh but that's the rule. it's commonplace on game shows for titles to be EXACT! I just watched a re-run of the joker's wild the contestant answered "mary tyler moore show" and was ruled wrong because it was supposed to be "THE mary tyler moore show"