2 ‘Jeopardy!’ contestants come up with the same wrong — and bizarre — answer

Contestants on “Jeopardy!” get stumped and miss clues every single game. But it’s not every day that two contestants come up with the same wrong answer and that wrong answer goes viral.

During a Final Jeopardy round this week, “Jeopardy!” contestants were tasked with responding to the following clue: “In 2021 at age 95, this singer achieved a Guinness World Record for the oldest person to release an album of new material.” 

Contestant Margaret Chipowsky, who was in third place going into the final round, came up with the answer host Ken Jennings was looking for: “Who is Tony Bennett?”

Last year, Bennett released an album with Lady Gaga celebrating the music of Cole Porter, according to the website Digital Music News. That album secured his fifth Guinness World Record — Bennett is also the oldest person to reach No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with a newly recorded album.

It was a comeback victory for Chipowsky, according to Yahoo. But it was the other two contestants who garnered all of the attention when they both came up with the incorrect response of Diana Ross.

The lead singer of The Supremes hasn’t faded from the spotlight. She performed at the 2019 Grammys and released her 25th studio album last year. But Ross fans were not pleased that two “Jeopardy!” contestants thought the legendary singer was 95 years old. Ross began trending on Twitter as fans shared their thoughts.

• “Last week, a Jeopardy contestant thought Aretha Franklin was in the Supremes. Tonight, two out of three contestants thought Diana Ross was the answer to: In 2021, what 95 year old singer released an album of new material? These are surely signs of the apocalypse,” one “Jeopardy!” fan wrote on Twitter.
• “The fact that two people on Jeopardy tonight thought Diana Ross is 95 is giving me anxiety!!!” wrote another fan. “SHE IS NOT.”

Following the online outrage, “Jeopardy!” contestants Karen Johnson and Finn Corrigan shared a little about that moment on Twitter.

• “Deepest apologies to the iconic Diana Ross!” Johnson wrote. “I didn’t really think you were the answer, but was running out of time and had to put something!”
• “Me too!” Corrigan responded. “I knew she was not nearly that old but better to write something than nothing. Just glad we’re in this together.”

The clue regarding Ross comes during the week of the singer’s birthday. Ross will turn 78 on March 26. It also comes during the month that a “Motown Anthology” collection of Supremes singer Mary Wilson, who died last year, was released digitally, featuring Wilson’s lead performances with the Supremes as well as her original music, according to Rock Cellar magazine.

Aspiring “Jeopardy!” contestants can take the preliminary test on the show’s website. The current season of “Jeopardy!” runs through July 29.