'Jeopardy!' champions boycott to support the WGA strike
Several Jeopardy! champions have announced they will refuse to appear on the game show during the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, speaking out in support of the people who write the clues.
The show of solidarity was instigated by Jeopardy! superchampion Ray Lalonde, who took to the r/Jeopardy subreddit to declare that he will refuse any Tournament of Champions invitation unless the WGA strike is first resolved.
The Tournament of Champions is an annual event that pits Jeopardy!'s top winners against each other to find the last one standing. Lalonde was all but guaranteed an invitation this year, having ended his 13-game streak in January as one of just 16 Jeopardy! contestants to win over 10 consecutive games in the show's history.
"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," Lalonde wrote on Friday. "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."
Lalonde's declaration was applauded by Jeopardy! fans, and prompted several other champions to pledge that they too would sit out any filmings before the strike ends. These include Ben Chan, Troy Meyer, Daniel Nguyen, Suresh Krishnan, and Hannah Wilson.
Some also echoed Lalonde's concern that Jeopardy! might try to push ahead without any writers by reusing questions from previous seasons — a development which would mark a notable drop in the show's quality.
"[T]hough like all of us I am a huge Jeopardy fan and it was a dream to appear on the show, I fully agree with [Lalonde's] stance and will not participate in any games comprised of recycled clues while the WGA strike is in effect," wrote Cris Pannullo, a 21-time Jeopardy! winner.
"The writers make the clues; the clues make the show," agreed five-time champion Luigi de Guzman. "The clues in the Tournament of Champions have typically been some of the best of the best clues the show has had to offer. They are at once challenging and creative. As Hannah [Wilson] said, a tournament with recycled clues won't be much fun for us players — and it would probably not meet the high standard that fans at home have come to expect."
A Jeopardy! spokesperson has since told Variety that it doesn't intend to hold the Tournament of Champions before the strike's end. Even so, Jeopardy! will continue to produce new episodes using material written by striking writers before the industrial action began.
With both the WGA and performers' union SAG-AFTRA currently on strike, there's been a reasonable assumption that studios will rely more heavily on game shows like Jeopardy! to satisfy their content needs. This Jeopardy! boycott makes clear that it might not be the easy solution they'd hoped for.