After at least seven recent “Jeopardy!” champions said they would not cross the Writers Guild of America picket line to participate in the show’s annual Tournament of Champions, producers now say the tournament is delayed.
In a statement late Tuesday, a spokesperson for Sony Pictures Television, which produces the long-running game show, told HuffPost the show “never had any intention of producing a Tournament of Champions for Season 39 until the strike is resolved.” The annual tournament, which features champions who won the most games during the previous season, typically is filmed in late summer and airs in November.
“Jeopardy!” writers, who come up with the show’s signature clues and questions, are members of the Writers of Guild of America West. TV and film members of the WGA West and East have been on strike since May over equitable pay and working conditions in the streaming era. (HuffPost’s unionized staffers are members of the WGA East.)
On Friday, one of the show’s recent champions, 13-time winner Ray Lalonde, announced he would not cross the picket line to participate in the Tournament of Champions in solidarity with the show’s writers. Lalonde, a Toronto-based scenic artist who has worked on film and TV sets, including on the Hulu series “The Handmaid’s Tale,” is a member of IATSE, a union representing many film and TV crew workers.
“I am and will always be grateful for the experience I had on the show and the opportunity to participate in the TOC is beyond a dream come true for me,” Lalonde wrote on a popular Reddit forum for the show. “That being said, I believe that the show’s writers are a vital part of the show and they are justified in taking their job action to secure a fair contract for themselves and their fellow WGA members.”
“As a supporter of the trade union movement, a union member’s son and a proud union member myself, I have informed the show’s producers that if the strike remains unresolved I will not cross a picket line to play in the tournament of champions,” he continued.
By Tuesday, six of his fellow champions who are eligible to participate in the tournament said they would join Lalonde in pledging to not cross the picket line.
“The writers make the clues; the clues make the show,” five-time “Jeopardy!” champion Luigi de Guzman wrote in response to Lalonde’s post.
“Jeopardy!” is among the many film and TV productions that have been significantly affected or delayed by studio executives failing to agree to a fair deal with writers. As of now, the show’s new season is slated to premiere in September. In its statement, Sony Pictures Television suggested the show is planning to air new episodes using old clues if the strike continues into the fall.
“Our current plan is to go into a holding pattern of sorts, pushing back the S39 postseason to first produce original episodes featuring the best of our WGA written material,” it said in the statement. “Next month, we will share more news about exciting plans and enhancements to the contestant experience for this upcoming season and beyond.”
“Celebrity Jeopardy!” — a primetime spinoff that airs on ABC — is also slated to return this fall, “with original material written by WGA writers before the strike.”
The Sony Pictures Television statement also added that “everyone at Jeopardy!” supports “a fair resolution quickly.”
“Jeopardy! has a long history with and tremendous respect for the WGA and our writers,” it reads. “We have always been careful to honor our WGA agreements and we would never air game material not created by WGA writers.”