James Holzhauer, a former "Jeopardy!" champion, called for a lifetime ban on fellow winner Yogesh Raut after Raut criticized the game show through social media.
"Anyone who's ever used social media to criticize Jeopardy or its producers should get a lifetime ban from the show," Holzhauer said on Twitter in response to Raut, who recently slammed the program for its supposedly racist fans.
Raut took to Facebook earlier this month detailing his qualms, which he claimed had little to do with the show and more with its fans. He asked, "what it is about 'J!' that causes the worst kinds of human beings to be so drawn to it and invested in it."
He then pointed to a supposed incident where a white grandmother told him to live a more "balanced life" and spend less time memorizing quiz trivia.
It was as if "the only way an Asian person could possibly know facts about her culture is by memorizing them, rather than by living a life full of agency and passion like a 'real' American," said Raut, a three-time "Jeopardy!" winner.
Raut also delivered several slights at "Jeopardy!" — calling it "a derivative game designed to introduce high levels of variance that constantly threaten to swamp out differences in skill level, on a glorified reality show."
Some onlookers speculated that Holzhauer, who once criticized former host Mike Richards, was being sarcastic in the recent tweet. According to The New York Times, Richards was fired from "Jeopardy!" in August 2021 due to accusations of sexism.
"Some judged Mike Richards solely on his podcast comments and formed a negative opinion, but I judged him by the way he treated people backstage at Jeopardy and formed a much stronger negative opinion," Holzhauer said on Twitter at the time.
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