The answer is "It's complicated." "Why do people keep saying Jeopardy! is banning Canadians?"
The U.S. game show is not able to accept contestant applications from residents of Canada. This only applies to the online test. Canadians can go to California and be on Jeopardy! but they can't apply online to participate.
"At this time we are precluded from accepting registration information from Canadian residents. We are currently evaluating this matter."
The chances of Canadians, other than Alex Trebek, getting on Jeopardy! are slim but technically not impossible. The folks at Jeopardy! aren't trying to keep Canadians from the game show. Trebek told the Ottawa Citizen that 2 Canadians will appear in episodes in March on shows already taped.
The Canadian anti-spam legislation states companies can't e-mail citizens without their express or implied permission. The Digital Privacy Act sets rules for how personal information can be collected, used and disclosed.
In a game where questions are answers, there are still a lot of questions about why this continues to be a problem for the game show. Despite many headlines to the contrary, Jeopardy! wants Canadians on the program. And that will happen again in due time.
Canadians would have certain advantages, especially if the show has a category on Canadian cities, such as the show had last year. Canada does come up quite often in Jeopardy! answers, and Canadians might be able to answer correctly some of those questions.
Jeopardy contestant comes up blank on Canadian cities
Canada's maple leaf flag turns 50
Watson may know many Jeopardy questions, but doesn't know Toronto is outside United States
Jeopardy! aired on CTV stations before 2008 and ran on the CBC from 2008-2012. Canadians can watch the show on U.S. TV stations via cable, satellite, and over the air.
photo credit: Jeopardy!
Comments