‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Responds After His ‘Self-Praise’ Divides Fans

Aaron Craig won a semifinals match in the ongoing Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard tournament, but he didn’t win much favor with the fans who called him out for clapping and cheering for himself. And in a Reddit discussion, the attorney originally from Toronto, Ontario, said he might have gotten “overly excited.”

On Friday’s episode of the syndicated game show, Craig went up against Leah Wiegand, a stay-at-home home from Austin, Texas, and T.J. Tallie, an associate professor of African history from San Diego, California.

Craig eked out a runaway with the last clue in Double Jeopardy, and despite a Final Jeopardy stumper, he won the game. When host Ken Jennings announced him as that day’s champion, Craig clapped with his hands over his head and shouted what sounded like “Let’s go, Chad!”

After Friday’s episode aired, Jeopardy! fans expressed their disapproval in a Reddit thread. “The clapping at the end was unnecessary,” one observed.

Another user wrote, “I turned the TV off after the self-congratulatory behavior. I certainly am not rooting for this guy to win and not even sure if I’ll watch the rest of the tournament. I’ve watched Jeopardy! for decades and don’t recall seeing such rudeness.”

A third user wrote, “That was unsportsmanlike and disrespectful to the other contestants. It was also very cringe. Self-praise is no praise. I liked Aaron and was rooting for him, but after that, I’m not rooting for him anymore.”

And someone else commented, “I get being excited about winning, but I thought his self-applause was a bit much. And based on the facial expressions, so did at least one other person on stage…”

(Tallie responded to that last comment, writing, “I don’t know what you mean…” and adding a winking emoticon.)

Other Reddit users, meanwhile, understood Craig’s excitement. “It seemed pretty genuine on his part,” one person wrote. “I don’t think he was trying to rub it in; I think he just got so excited that he forgot his manners.”

Another person commented, “Heaven forbid a contestant have enough situational awareness to understand the importance of that [final Double Jeopardy] clue and celebrate a little when he beat out two tough competitors to it.”

And someone else wrote, “Well, if [we] are to treat Jeopardy! like a sport, as [executive producer] Mike Davies says, maybe it should be OK to celebrate scoring a runaway in a tense buzzer race. But you sure don’t see it often.”

Craig himself chimed in on Reddit, writing, “TJ and Leah are amazing and lovely and brilliant, and either one would have been a great and deserving winner today. I’m sorry if I got overly excited. I certainly didn’t mean to show anybody up, but my kids were there, and I couldn’t believe that they got to watch me not just play in a semifinal, but win! Anyone who thinks I was over the top, that’s 1000% fair. No argument here.”

Jeopardy!, Weeknights, Check your local listings