Jeopardy! execs reveal staff's dismay after Ken Jennings cursed while spoiling clue on-stage

JEOPARDY! producers have revealed their frenzied reaction to host Ken Jennings cursing on stage.

Ken, 49, was bleeped out during an off-the-rails 2022 Tournament of Champions episode re-airing Tuesday.

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Jeopardy! is airing the 2022 tournament in full as part of its annual summer reruns before the new season premieres on September 11.

The episode featured the three frontrunners from the $250K tournament, eventually won by Amy Schneider.

40-time winner Amy, 38-time winner Matt Amodio, and 23-win sensation Mattea Roach, 24, played a special practice exhibition game that didn't count towards the tournament midway through.

The just-for-fun buzzer battle aired on Election Day 2022, which was why some fans may have missed it- and missed Ken cursing.

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'OH S**T!'

Ken explained while presenting a category: "I don't know if you noticed, but the numbers in that category are 40, 23, 38, and 74, which is larger than all of them.

"Oh s**t!" he yelled, realizing what he had done.

The game show bleeped Ken uttering the swear word as he scrunched his face and threw his clue sheet to the ground.

The category purposefully corresponded to how many games each player on stage had initially won.

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Ken was joking about his 74-game winning streak in 2004 still being the "largest" ever, but one of the clues still hadn't been read, so he gave it away, which is why he cursed.

All three beloved contestants burst out laughing and smashed the buzzer, trying to get the clue Ken spoiled.

“You gave it away!” yelled an off-screen and off-microphoned voice.

Jeopardy! shared the unruly moment on Instagram today since it's re-airing in all its glory.

One fan commented: "Ken got too excited about bragging."

Another person wrote: "Ken Jennings is a national treasure."

"Today's the day we get to re-enjoy this magical #Jeopardy moment" tweeted a third.

'YES, KEN JENNINGS SWEARS!'

On the official Inside Jeopardy podcast, longtime producer Sarah Foss later shared the shock from staff in the studio and why they had no choice but to air it as-is.

She explained: “Rocky Schmidt, our supervising producer, was like, 'We have to come up with this category that relates to all of your streaks.'"

“One thing we learned from the great exhibition, yes, Ken Jennings swears!

Foss explained they couldn’t feasibly edit out the curse because it "spilled over" into the clue Ken wound up spoiling.

“We couldn't edit it out, but it was such a genuine moment you could hear all of us yelling from the judge's table, 'no! No!'

"He fixed it but I loved it.

"I think it’s really great in a game like this where there isn't so much at stake, becoming a day more of a champion isn't on the line, or advancing, or anything like that.

"We could really just have fun."

Foss called it: "One of my funnest moments in the studio.”

JOKES ACROSS THE BOARD

The one-off episode featured many sweet in-jokes since it was also the second anniversary of Alex Trebek's tragic passing.

The episode included a “Remembering Alex Trebek” category, including the late host's love of diet coke.

At another point, Matt stopped the game to say: "Hi Ken, I just wanted to say hi," as it was his first time with Ken as his host.

Matt played under a record seven hosts since he originally competed in 2021 during the host selection processes.

During a pop music round, Mattea called a song by P!nk: "One of my favorite songs when I was like four."

Amy, 42, then called Eminem's Lose Yourself: "One of my favorite songs when I was, like, 27," shading Mattea for her youthfulness.

2022 TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

The 2022 Tournament of Champions was one of the most thrilling in history as it included more super-champs, or 10-day plus winners, than any previous year.

Mattea, Matt, Amy, Ryan Long, Sam Buttrey, Andrew He, and other greats from Season 38 all duked it out.

Amy won, but it was hard-fought as the first-to-three-wins finals of the special wound up taking six incredibly intense games.

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The other two finalists, fan-favorite Professor Sam and underdog Andrew notched one and two victories a piece.

While Mattea and Matt were shockingly eliminated before the finals they fared much better in May's Masters.

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