Despite the song being the second-biggest hit of the decade, Celebrity Jeopardy! contestants completely failed to identity Usher’s iconic track, Yeah!, on Wednesday’s episode.
The season three premiere saw New Girl actor Max Greenfield, Grey’s Anatomy star Camilla Luddington and stand-up comic W. Kamau Bell competing to win money for their chosen charities.
However, the trio might have benefitted from taking a bit more time to brush up on their music knowledge before taking part in the show after they all failed to name one of the hitmaker’s most famous songs.
In the category ‘2004, What a Year!’ host Ken Jennings read out the prompt: ‘We got so caught up in this Usher song that it spent 12 weeks at the top of the charts.’
Greenfield responded first and incorrectly guessed: ‘What is Caught Up?’
While that was a song released by Usher, it dropped in 2005 and his guess went against the general show’s pattern of avoiding words from the correct answer in the phrasing of the question.
Celebrity Jeopardy! contestants completely failed to identity Usher’s iconic track, Yeah!, on Wednesday’s episode
Released in January 2004, Yeah! remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for 45 weeks and was the longest-running No. 1 single of that year
His wrong guest cost the star $1,500, and the same happened to Luddington as she guessed: ‘What is All Caught Up?’
Bell chose not to respond and let the timer run out so he didn’t lose out on any money.
He later joked: ‘Feels so awkward to be the Black guy who doesn’t know the Usher song. I was listening to Rage Against the Machine at the time, sorry everybody.’
Viewers shared their amusement at the contestants failure to get many of the clues during the show as one wrote: ‘Celebrity Jeopardy! makes me feel like a genius.’
‘Ken Jennings is thiiiiiiis close to losing it on Celebrity Jeopardy! because they don’t know the answers to most of the questions,’ a third fan stated.
Another fan noted: ‘The questions on Celebrity Jeopardy! are almost too easy.’
Released in January 2004, Usher’s track features rappers Ludacris and Lil Jon, and still remains the biggest hit of the musician’s career.
Yeah! remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for 45 weeks and was the longest-running No. 1 single of that year.
The track saw resurgence in popularity last year after Usher’s 2024 Super Bowl halftime show performance
The season three premiere saw New Girl actor Max Greenfield, Grey’s Anatomy star Camilla Luddington and stand-up comic W. Kamau Bell competing against each other
Viewers shared their amusement at the contestants failure to get many of the clues during the show
It was also the second-biggest song of the decade (2000–2009) behind Mariah Carey’s mega-hit, We Belong Together.
Yeah! also won a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards.
The track saw resurgence in popularity last year after Usher’s 2024 Super Bowl halftime show performance.
Yeah! saw a 520 percent streaming boost following the performance, which was the most-watched halftime show in history after drawing in 129.3 million viewers.
The Usher question wasn’t the only one to stump all three contestants as the trio also failed to identify John Legend’s hit All of Me.
They also couldn’t recall the pitchfork as the primary object in Grant Wood’s American Gothic and struggled to name Eleanor Roosevelt as the longest-serving First Lady in American history.
Bell took the chance to redeem himself in later category titled ‘Hard New York Times Crossword Answers’ and ultimately moved on to the semi-final round with $11,009
Bell took the chance to redeem himself in later category titled ‘Hard New York Times Crossword Answers.’
He received the clue: ’11-Down, 3 Letters: Group that had the first hardcore rap album to reach no. 1 on Billboard.’
The comic successfully guessed, ‘Who is NWA?’, and earned himself $1200.
Jeopardy! host Jennings asked: ‘Feel better about that?’
To which Bell responded: ‘Yes! Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s more my style’.
Bell ultimately emerged victorious, moving on to the semi-final round with $11,009.
