D’ARCY Carden accidentally shut down her Celebrity Jeopardy! taping and terrified host Ken Jennings after she ‘broke’ the show’s famed buzzer, The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal.
Just moments after the host boasted about how the buzzer had never been broken by a contestant in all of Jeopardy!’s history, the crucial set piece to the game was severed.
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On tonight’s episode of the celebrity spinoff, D’Arcy, 45, put up her best trivia knowledge to play for charity to benefit Americares – which helps people around the world impacted by crises and various disasters.
The winner of tonight’s episode goes on to the next round of the tournament in hopes of earning $1 million for the charity of their choice – while those who lost still get to take back $30,000 for their organization.
The Good Place actress went up against Marvel actor Sean Gunn and Good Trouble star Sherry Cola.
Guardians of the Galaxy star Sean competed for Women for Women International, which helps women rebuild their lives and graduate from their program with “life-changing skills.”
While Sherry played for Teach AAPI – which creates space and opportunities for all children to learn about Asian American and Pacific Islander cultures and stories.
The taping of Wednesday’s game began as normal – with the trio of celebrities zipping through the categories as Sean, 50, accurately guessed most answers to get an early lead.
However, it was during a commercial break when things began to take a chaotic turn, a source present at the time told The U.S. Sun.
During one break, Ken, 50, addressed the studio audience for a Q&A where he gives fans the opportunity to ask him any question.
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According to an insider, one attendee asked Ken if any contestant had ever broken the buzzer that is crucial to each player’s game – as it is the difference between getting an opportunity to answer the clue or not.
Ken proudly responded that during his entire time hosting Jeopardy!, “no one” had ever broken the buzzer or had it not work.
He answered a few other questions and resumed hosting the game – which continued into its Double Jeopardy! round.
Just moments later, the game was forced to come to an abrupt halt after D’Arcy broke her buzzer.
Sherry had just found a Daily Double and as the clue popped up on screen, D’Arcy interrupted and yelled out to announce to Ken, producers, and the entire studio that her buzzer was broken.
The red button to the buzzer had physically fallen off, according to the source, resulting in immediate panic on stage.
“There was a huge amount of stress as that’s never happened before. The producers had to turn off the power to all the screens and the lights.
“They shut everything down and Ken looked very stressed. Producers ran up on stage and huddled around D’Arcy in a desperate attempt to fix the buzzer.
“Producers even shuffled the contestants away from the podium. They took the matter extremely seriously,” the source claimed.
Jeopardy! Universe
Jeopardy! first aired in 1964 until 1975. Then the nighttime version began in 1974. Since then, many spinoffs of the game show have emerged. Here they all are:
Jeopardy! – (syndicated) 1974 to present, weekdays on ABC at 7 pm ET.
Tournament of Champions – 1984 to present, features the top champions who have appeared on the show since the last tournament.
Second Chance Tournament – 2022 to present features hand-selected non-winners from the season prior, where the prize is entry into Champions Wildcard.
Champions Wildcard – 2023 to present, features all one, two and three-day champions from the season prior worth entry into the Tournament of Champions.
Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament (syndication) – 2023 to present, features past greats invited by producers to vie for a slot in Masters.
Jeopardy! Masters (primetime) – 2023 to present, features the six highest-ranked Jeopardy! champions competing against each other.
Celebrity Jeopardy! (primetime) – 1992 to present, has celebrities compete against each other to raise money for charity.
Pop Culture Jeopardy (streaming) – 2024 to present, will feature teams of three tasked with pop culture trivia on Amazon Prime, hosted by Colin Jost, airdate TBD
Jeopardy! has done away with specialized tournaments like its College Tournaments, Kids Week, and Professor’s Tournament to gear towards a more sports-like model, with Masters being the top of the Jeopardy pyramid.
Other versions of Jeopardy! have fizzled out throughout the years as well, like Sports Jeopardy!.
After about five minutes of attempting to fix the set piece, the button was finally put back on the same buzzer and the game was able to continue.
The game picked up where it left off – with Sherry answering the Daily Double she found just before disaster struck and the blunder was edited out – not making it to air.
It was Sean who played the most dominant game – getting the most amount of answers correct and maintaining his lead throughout the episode.
The action star came out on top – advancing to the next round.
Sherry ended up in second while D’arcy came in third place.
Although their Celebrity Jeopardy! run came to an end, both ladies were able to bring back $30,000 each for their respective charities.
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