Alex Trebek Has ‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Smiling After ‘Jessica Rabbit’ Gaffe

Alex Trebek’s trouble with names turned into nothing but delight for Jeopardy! viewers as one of his verbal fumbles ended up confusing one of the contestants with a famous Who Framed Roger Rabbit character. Thursday’s episode started off on a difficult note for Trebek name-wise, who pronounced contestant DewiHarjanto’s first name incorrectly until the start of the Double Jeopardy! round.

At that time, Trebek revealed, “Dewi, I’ve been mispronouncing your name, but I’m sure I’m not the first person who has done that over the years. My apologies to you.”

A more humorous gaffe came when Trebek referred to returning champion Jessica Babbitt as “Jessica Rabbit,” telling her, “Jessica Rabbit, you’re gonna wrap up the week with us having earned $46,598.”

With Babbitt beginning to laugh at what surely isn’t the first time the red-headed contestant has had the comparison made, Trebek quickly corrected himself.

“And your last name is not Rabbit, it’s Babbitt. This is not my day for names,” he told the champ. Being that Trebek rarely makes a mistake, especially with names, on air, the longtime game show host made sure to poke fun at himself at the close of the show, joking, “This is Alex ‘Rebek’ saying goodbye until tomorrow.”

The gaffe put a smile on the face of so many viewers who loved the slip-up.

Things on Jeopardy! will look a little different in the upcoming weeks, with a source telling The Hollywood Reporter Monday that the game show, as well as Wheel of Fortune, would be recording without a live studio audience “for the time being” while the studio keeps an eye on the coronavirus outbreak. The source said filming is scheduled to resume in mid-April.

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