He didn't exactly take exception with the judges nor do I feel he was sympathetic with the unfortunate kid. Had this been the days of live TV, there would have been an excuse to replay the game (as happened on "Twenty-One" when Hank Bloomgarden named "coccyx" instead of "coccygeal" as one of the groups of bones in the spinal column, was ruled right, and was later overruled). Of course, those days are over, so losers have to live with their misfortune unless it's a brazen error on the part of the judges. I do think, in answer to your question, that Trebek could have said something other than that the kid misspelled "emancipation" (in his words) "badly." Sometimes he just reminds me of a male Anne Robinson; it doesn't take much for me to imagine him saying, "You are the weakest link, goodbye."
