Several recent Jeopardy! winners slated to compete in the upcoming Tournament of Champions have pledged not to participate to show solidarity with the Writers Guild of America, which is on its 13th week of striking, threatening to disrupt one of the show’s marquee annual events.
CULVER CITY, CA - APRIL 17: A general view on the set of the "Jeopardy!" Million Dollar Celebrity ... [+]
Ray Lalonde, a winner in the latest season of Jeopardy!, posted on Reddit and in a Facebook group Friday saying even though being on the show was “a dream come true … if the strike remains unresolved I will not cross a picket line to play in the tournament of champions.”
Lalonde wrote that he had informed the show's producers of his decision and hoped by sharing his choice he would encourage others who felt the same to act on it, and they did: At least six other champions from last season echoed his sentiments and said they wouldn’t participate, according to responses to Lalonde’s post.
Jeopardy! hires writers through the Writers Guild of America union, though it finished filming its most recent season in late May—after the strike began—because the questions were written in advance, according to Deadline.
$386,400. That’s how much Lalonde, who started the movement among past champions to not participate in the show amid the strike, made by winning Jeopardy! last year.
“The writers make the clues; the clues make the show. The clues in the Tournament of Champions have typically been some of the best of the best clues the show has had to offer,” Luigi de Guzman, another winner from last season, wrote in response to Lalonde.
The WGA has been striking since early May when more than 10,000 unionized film and television writers announced negotiations between the union and the studios failed. It’s the first such work stoppage by writers in 15 years and, since the WGA strike started, actors have begun a strike, marking the first time since 1960 that writers and actors are striking at the same time. Writers are striking in part because they said the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) wouldn’t negotiate on creating a minimum number of writers shows could have or a proposal for guaranteed minimum employment of 10 consecutive weeks for a season of a show, amid shortened seasons for many streaming shows compared to previous network broadcasts. Another concern of the WGA is around the growth of streaming services and its impact on the traditional payment structure for writers, which has been based on home video sales and syndication on TV.