TELEVISION - May 3, 1993

In Jeopardy?: The answer: A popular television game show accused by a former employee of favoring female contestants with last-minute rigging. The question: What is “Jeopardy!”? In a forthcoming book by Harry Eisenberg, “Inside ‘Jeopardy!’: What Really Goes on at TV’s Top Quiz Show,” the former “Jeopardy!” writer claims that clues and topics on the syndicated quiz show were altered to give women an edge. The book claims that “female-friendly” changes included swapping a weapons category for one featuring questions about clothing. A spokeswoman for Merv Griffin Enterprises, the show’s producer, dismissed the allegations as a publicity stunt and called Eisenberg a disgruntled ex-worker. Eisenberg does not implicate host Alex Trebek in his book.