Jeopardy! is being called out.
Fans of the long-running trivia series aren't happy after a recent episode of Celebrity Jeopardy! referenced the Gabby Petito murder as a clue for contestants John Michael Higgins, Wil Wheaton and Joel Kim Booster.
"In 2021," the clue during the Nov. 13 episode read, "Fugitive Brian Laundrie ended his days in Fla.'s Myakkahatchee Creek area, home to these long & toothy critters." The answer? "What are alligators."
The clue quickly got heat online, with fans calling the hint "disrespectful" and "insensitive" for mentioning the case at all.
"Not celebrity @jeopardy using Brian Laundrie as a clue for alligators," one viewer tweeted. "That's so distasteful and wrong could've used anything else for a clue."
Meanwhile, another fan said the series has "lost it" due to this question. A third wrote, "You use Brian Laundrie, a guy who murdered poor Gabby Petito, as a clue? What in the hell is wrong with you? Have you no soul?" adding that they "can't believe this question got past your lawyers."
Steven P. Bertolino, the attorney for the Laundrie Family, also reacted to the Jeopardy! moment, telling E! News: "The entire Laundrie family is appalled and concurs with all of the comments on social media on how distasteful this was. I believe an apology is due."
In Sept. 2021, Petito, 22, was found strangled to death in Wyoming while on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie, her fiancé, who then went on the run after police named him a person of interest in the YouTuber's disappearance. In Oct. of the same year, Laundrie, 23, took his own life in Florida, where the couple lived. Authorities later found a notebook near his remains in which he had written in a confession that he had "ended" Gabby's life.
Wheaton, the winner of Nov. 13's episode, will face Ike Barinholtz and another yet-to-be-named winner in the finals Feb. 2.