Dec. 31 (UPI) — “Jeopardy!” star Ken Jennings says he’s “truly sorry” for his “insensitive” past tweets.
The 46-year-old game show contestant, a former Utah resident and Brigham Young University graduate, apologized Wednesday on Twitter ahead of his debut as interim “Jeopardy!” host.
“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,” Jennings wrote.
Jennings said he left the tweets up “so they could be dunked on” and potentially spark dialogue.
“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,” the star said.
“But I think that practice may have given the impression I stand by every failed joke I’ve ever posted here. Not at all!” he added.
Jennings apologized for his remarks and urged others to be kind to one another.
“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,” the star said.
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,” he added.
Jennings is facing backlash after several of his past tweets resurfaced online, including a 2014 post that read, “Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair.”
In 2015, Jennings joked about a terminally ill “Star Wars” fan who got to watch “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” before he died.
“It can’t be a good sign that every fan who has seen the new ‘Star Wars’ movie died shortly thereafter,” he wrote.
Jennings holds the record for the longest winning streak on “Jeopardy!” In January, he beat James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter to win the “Jeopardy!: The Greatest of All Time competition.”
Jennings was named the first interim “Jeopardy!” host in November following longtime host Alex Trebek‘s death. The final week of episodes hosted by Trebek will begin airing Jan. 4.
