Ken Jennings.Photo: Eric McCandless/abc
Ken Jenningsis owning up to his past mistakes.
TheJeopardy!star shared a series oftweetsWednesday apologizing for old social media posts, including some that have been criticized for making fun of people with disabilities.
“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. Sometimes they worked as jokes in my head and I was dismayed to see how they read on screen,” hebeganin a lengthy thread.
“In the past, I’d usually leave bad tweets up just so they could be dunked on,” Jenningscontinued. “At least that way they could lead to smart replies and even advocacy. Deleting them felt like whitewashing a mistake.”
Inoneof his old tweets from 2014, Jennings wrote, “Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair.”
Jennings has beenserving as a guest hoston recent filmings ofJeopardy!since thedeathof longtime hostAlex Trebekin November, and joined the competition series as aconsulting producerin September.
When Jennings was named an interim host, actressYvette Nicole Brownspoke out on Twitter, simply responding “nope” to the news.
“I don’t hate that dude,” theCommunitystar added in a later tweet. “I hate what he thinks is funny and I know that he is not a worthy successor to #Trebek.”
Jenningscontinuedin his Wednesday thread: “Sometimes I said dumb things in a dumb way and I want to apologize to people who were (rightfully!) offended. It wasn’t my intention to hurt anyone, but that doesn’t matter: I screwed up, and I’m truly sorry.”
“If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we should be kinder to one another. I look forward to heading into 2021 with that in mind,” heconcluded.
Trebek’s finalJeopardy!episodeswill air next week, Jan. 4-8, and Jennings' first episode is Jan. 11.
source: people.com
