“Danger!” three-time champion Yogesh Raut has not thanked any known winner of the show following several rants on Facebook in which he called the “glorified reality show”.
Raut, who won three games and earned $96,403 in episodes that aired earlier this month, shared several revelations online, including one in which he referenced his success on the competitive Test circuit, including winning the Test World Cup .
Raut noted in the post that despite his other successes, he received “the most attention, praise, congratulations and nasty trolling from outsiders” and earned the highest salary of his Test career for hitting two guys on TV.
“Also, this is not an insult to ‘Jeopardy!’ which is a TV show designed for entertainment and a pretty good one at that. It’s fun to watch, but it has the same relationship to real-life testing that ‘Holey Moley’ has to golf,” Raut wrote.
He continued, saying, “There has never been and never will be any justification for the treatment of Jeopardy! like at the Quiz Olympics.
Raut also compared his series win to a chess grandmaster who was successful in major tournaments but gained recognition for winning “over a non-standard version of chess”.
It’s a version of chess, he said, which is a “derivative game designed to introduce high levels of variation that constantly threaten to erase skill level differences, in a glorified reality show.”
“Danger!” did not immediately respond to a HuffPost request for comment.
Raut’s remarks ruffled the feathers of “Jeopardy!” icon James Holzhauer, that he crossing with in the past. Holzhauer, who won $2.4 million from the contest, called on the show to take action against the three-time champion.
“Anyone who has ever used social media to criticize Jeopardy or its producers should receive a lifetime ban from the show.” he wrote.
“Danger!” However, executive producer Michael Davies did not call for a lifetime ban, instead responding that the show was “not beyond criticism”.
“I love that after being criticized, Yogesh stood up and defended himself. … I would say vigorously and extensively,” Davies said on “Inside Jeopardy!” podcasts.
“We are not beyond criticism. You don’t have to come to “Jeopardy!” and say great things about the game.
