Ken Jennings apologizes for past insensitive tweets: 'I screwed up, and I'm truly sorry'

By Hayley FitzPatrick

Ken Jennings is addressing some of his past tweets.

In a series of posts on Wednesday, the "Jeopardy!" champion, who will be the show's first guest host following the death of Alex Trebek, apologized for "unartful and insensitive things" he's previously said on the social media platform.

"Hey, I just wanted to own up to the fact that over the years on Twitter, I've definitely tweeted some unartful and insensitive things," he wrote. "Sometimes they worked as jokes in my head and I was dismayed to see how they read on screen."

Jennings went on to explain why he has not deleted some of his past tweets that were deemed offensive.

"In the past, I'd usually leave bad tweets up just so they could be dunked on. At least that way they could lead to smart replies and even advocacy. Deleting them felt like whitewashing a mistake," he tweeted. "But I think that practice may have given the impression I stand by every failed joke I've ever posted here. Not at all!"

In the past, I'd usually leave bad tweets up just so they could be dunked on. At least that way they could lead to smart replies and even advocacy. Deleting them felt like whitewashing a mistake. 2/x

— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) December 30, 2020

One of the tweets he shared reportedly included a joke about a disabled person. He apologized for the since-deleted tweet, which reportedly read, "Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair," in 2018.

"I never did a public flogging thing for this but I did apologize personally to angry/hurt people who reached out personally," he responded at the time. "It was a joke so inept that it meant something very different in my head & I regret the ableist plain reading of it!"

Other tweets of Jennings' that many have called into question include a since-deleted remark about Barron Trump and a joke about fans who had seen the 2015 film "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" early, which many connected to several terminally ill fans who saw the film before its premiere date.

In his posts Wednesday, Jennings said he is "truly sorry."

"Sometimes I said dumb things in a dumb way and I want to apologize to people who were (rightfully!) offended," he tweeted. "It wasn't my intention to hurt anyone, but that doesn't matter: I screwed up."

Jennings, a 74-time champion of "Jeopardy!", was announced as one of the show's interim hosts last month. Production for the show resumed on Nov. 30.

"Jeopardy!" is distributed domestically by CBS Television Distribution and internationally by CBS Studios International. The syndicated game show airs on ABC-owned stations.