Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions delayed due to WGA strike
Following some criticisms by past contestants and plans to skip out on the Tournament of Champions until after the WGA strike is over, the show itself confirmed that said tournament will be pushed back. Here is what a spokesperson had to say to Deadline:
“Jeopardy! never had any intention of producing a Tournament of Champions for Season 39 until the strike is resolved.
“Our current plan is to go into a holding pattern of sorts, pushing back the Season 39 postseason to first produce original episodes featuring the best of our WGA written material. Next month, we will share more news about exciting plans and enhancements to the contestant experience for this upcoming season and beyond.”
So basically, the way in which we interpret this is that original episodes are going to be produced using highlights from the past — which the show claims was done previously during the 2007-08 writers’ strike as well with Alex Trebek as the host. This will still be polarizing to some, and it remains to be seen what this means for the hosting duo of Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings. Bialik opted to not take part in the end of season 39 filming, citing the strike as the reason.
What about Celebrity Jeopardy! down the road?
The aforementioned report notes that episodes of this show are going to be coming with material written by WGA writers prior to the strike. Both shows are covered under a different part of SAG-AFTRA that allows them to continue, meaning that they will not be shut down in the way that a lot of primetime scripted programs are.
When do you think the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions is actually going to air?
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(Photo: CBS Media Ventures.)