Photo:Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
The annualJeopardy!Tournament of Champions has been delayed indefinitely.
After former champions announced their intent tostand in solidaritywith theWriters Guild of America(WGA) amid itsstrike for fair wages, Sony Pictures Television announced Tuesday that the show would be postponed. The milestone season 40 will continue and is set to air on Sept. 11, relying on material from former seasons.
The popular game show has been on air for 39 seasons with guild writers penning the tricky brainteasers.
“Our words are on the screen every night,” writer Michele Loud toldVarietyon the picket lines in May just days after the strike began. “There is noJeopardy!without writers. Without us it’s just an empty blue screen.”
Tyler Golden/ABC via Getty Images; Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images
The annual fan-favoriteTournament of Championstypically films in August and September but is now not set to tape until after the strike has been resolved.
“Jeopardy!never had any intention of producing a Tournament of Champions for season 39 until the strike is resolved,” a spokesperson for the show said in a statement to PEOPLE. “Further, no contestants from season 39 have been contacted regarding their availability for any postseason tournaments, including the TOC. TheJeopardy!postseason represents the pinnacle of our competition, and it should feature our strongest players playing our toughest original material.”
CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty
Former winners Ben Chan, Cris Pannullo, Hannah Wilson, Troy Meyer and Ray Lalonde — who were slated to play in the trivia game show’s annual tournament — spurred the delay when they recently announced they would not participate if the strike continues into the fall.
In a post shared toReddit, Lalonde wrote that the game show was already “makingcontingency plansto start filming the next season of the show with old and/or recycled material if the WGA strike remains unresolved.”
Never miss a story — sign up forto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter
Many former winners, including all of the slated contestants for the upcoming tournament, replied to Lalonde’s post or posted elsewhere on social media saying they would join him in declining to take part.
AJeopardy!spokesperson told PEOPLE the show plans to share “more news about exciting plans and enhancements to the contestant experience for this upcoming season and beyond” in the next month. They also added that “Everyone atJeopardy!hopes that the guilds and the AMPTP can reach a fair resolution quickly.”
source: people.com
