Maine's Largest Newspaper 'False Jeopardy Claim'

By Ted Cohen/The Maine Wire

The Portland Press Herald appears to have been erroneously reporting that two of its former staffers would be the first married couple to win Jeopardy, angering the wildly-popular TV show’s fanbase across the country.

A number of widely-followed news sites, including Yahoo Entertainment, are reporting that the Maine paper’s false stories on the married Jeopardy contestants triggered a nationwide viewer backlash.

Media outlets worldwide picked up and recirculated the Portland Press Herald’s apparently bogus reports that the married duo the paper has been sponsoring would be the first victorious Jeopardy couple.

“Multiple Jeopardy winners whose spouses also won on the show called out inaccurate reporting that a recent champ achieved a new milestone,” reports Yahoo, which quipped, “What is: misinformation?"

It was the Portland Press Herald that originally and falsely reported that its former reporter and editor, Jason Singer, and wife Susan McMillan, a former Kennebec Journal reporter, would be the first couple to grab successive Jeopardy titles – he last week, she in 2021.

A growing number of social-media Jeopardy scorekeepers pointing out the erroneous story began pressing editors for a timely revision of the Singer/McMillan couple’s actual competitive standing.

"Jeopardy scandal erupts online as past married champions remind the world they exist:” – Yahoo.

“After several outlets reported that Singer and McMillan were the first-ever married contestants to win the iconic game show after tying the knot, multiple past champions called out the media for spreading inaccurate info about the show’s history,” according to Yahoo.

Singer and McMillan “are far from the first married couple to achieve such a milestone,” Yahoo said.

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Singer finally began apologizing for the mistaken representation after the growing crescendo of criticism.

A third news outlet, TVinsider.com, is also covering the Maine newspaper’s fiasco.

The royal screw-up has become the Portland Press Herald’s version of the Chicago Daily Tribune’s 1948 infamous embarrassing false claim that Dewey defeated Truman.

Christopher Denault, a former Jeopardy contestant and loyal fan of the show, called the paper’s reporting “sloppy."

"We’ve already had at least three married couples who have won on the show,” Denault said. “So no, Jason Singer and his wife wouldn’t be the first ones to do it.”

The best-known example of previous successful Jeopardy couples is Justin and Kristin Sausville, with both of them going so far as to reach the Tournament of Champions.

"In addition to the Sausvilles, other couples who have won episodes of the iconic game show include Dan Pawson and Andrea Saenz, David Rigsby and Ryan Alley, and Amy Stephenson and Scott Bateman,” TVinsider.com reported.

Denault said that even though the Maine paper has since begun backtracking on its erroneous reporting, “putting that genie back into the bottle’s a near-impossible task."

The Portland Press Herald’s gaffe comes in the wake of Carolyn Fox, the top editor at the Maine Trust for Local News, announcing last month she was establishing a fact-finding team “to combat the spread of misinformation.”

Fox hasn’t explained why the paper took Singer’s initial claim at face value without first trying to verify whether it were true.