“There will never be a healthy quizzing culture in this country until we learn to stop pretending that ‘Jeopardy!’ is important,” said three-time “Jeopardy!” winner Yogesh Raut in a Facebook post from earlier this month.
Raut, who identified himself as a social scientist, is active in academic quiz competitions explained that he thinks that people of color do not get enough representation in the community.
According to NBC News, Raut is also blogger and podcaster who “has been on a weekslong social media rant” against “Jeopardy!” and has asserted that it's not a real quiz contest. The outlet also said Raut questioned its value to society.
In his Jan. 12 post, he added that the long-running game show “is a fun TV show but putting it on a pedestal is an objectively bad thing,” and that it is “bad for women and POC who want to be treated with the same levels of dignity as their white male counterparts.”
“Jeopardy!” first aired in 1964 and has one more Emmy awards than any other game show. Contestants answer quiz questions in the “What is” format to earn money.
Raut first appeared on the show Jan. 11, when he won the first of three games, which were taped in mid-November, according to NBC News. Museum interpreter, Katie Palumbo, beat him in a contest that aired Jan 16.
Although Raut has been a successful contestant on the show – and noted that everyone on the program treated him “just fine” – he said in his post that its “centrality to American society is,” a problem.
“The fact that actual quizzing continues to be a fringe subculture in the shadows is what allowed racists, misogynists, and outright sexual harassers to thrive in collegiate quizbowl for so long,” Raut said. “It’s the reason unapologetic bigots remain in positions of high power at major pub quiz companies.”
He added that the show is “fundamentally incompatible with true social justice,” in its current format.
NBC said that his comments received increased attention when writer Megan Greenwell tweeted about them.
“I don’t watch Jeopardy, but I am extremely invested in the guy who won three times but was apparently bad on the buzzer, then began a multi-week Facebook meltdown about how Jeopardy is not the REAL quizzing world and compared himself to Muhammad Ali,” she said.
Despite his criticism of the show Raut said this week that he is grateful for the opportunity to be on.
“I win $98,000 and the first words out of the mouth of the reporter who’s calling me to talk about it are, ‘I’m so, so sorry,’” he wrote this week.
“Structural critiques aside, within the state of the world as it is, it was the best chance I’ll ever have to turn the skills I spent a lifetime developing into some sort of fiscal remuneration,” he added.
However, Raut still said he was “was surprised at the depths of racism exposed by my mere presence on TV.”
A “Jeopardy!” spokeswoman declined to comment on the situation Monday, said NBC News.
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