Alex Trebek defends controversial Jeopardy! champ Arthur Chu

(Image credit: YouTube)

Last night, Jeopardy! champ Arthur Chu — whose disorienting, relatively unconventional strategies have led a number of jealous killjoys to dub him a "Jeopardy! villain" — won his seventh consecutive game for a grand total of $180,000. The last time a Jeopardy! contestant got this much mainstream press was in 2004, when Ken Jennings went on his unprecedented 74-game streak. But the buzz around Chu has reached such a fever pitch that Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek accepted a rare invitation to appear on Fox News program The Five to discuss Chu's playing style:

"He's a good player, and I think the accusations against his style of play have no merit to them. When you guys watch the show, you watch it because you're competitive.You want to see how well you do compared to the contestants. But also, as a minor side to that, you watch because you want to see... You'll pick a favorite. You want to see if this guy succeeds, or she does better than him. And if you don't like a contestant — and obviously there are a number of people who have taken a dislike to Arthur Chu — then it's going to come out. And in this day and age of 'twitters,' and everybody's got a cell phone, and everybody's communicating immediately — then the story gets blown all out of proportion."

But the interview doesn't end at Arthur Chu. Watch the whole thing, and cringe as Trebek explains why female contestants make wagers because they're afraid of losing 'the grocery money.'

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Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.