Jeopardy champs slam studio over offer to return, cross WGA picket line

Jeopardy!This isn’t like any other game show. Players who pass the tests, nail the interviews, and receive the call to take the stage to test their trivia knowledge have often waited years for the opportunity — it is a dream come true. It is almost unheard of to get a second chance, except for those who qualify for Tournament of Champions.

The show has given some of its former actors a second opportunity due to unusual circumstances. Jeopardy!’s 40th season, set to premiere on Sept. 11, is inviting select contestants from previous seasons to play in a new set of games. The season will start with a Second Chance tournament, in which players from the COVID-restricted season 37 who excelled but didn’t win will return for another chance at glory. Later in the season, a Champion’s Wild Card tournament will bring together champs from seasons 37 and 38, along with the Second Chance winners, to face off in an even bigger showdown.

The five The following are some examples of the use of Jeopardy! contestants who were offered spots in these tournaments tell Polygon, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime — again. It’s also an ethical nightmare.

“When I got a call gauging my interest in participating, my initial reaction was pure shock, because I’d given up any fantasies about being invited back,” one season 38 champion says. The participants spoke anonymously to avoid affecting their chances of appearing on Jeopardy!The future. “But once that initial shock wore off, it was replaced by the dread of having to make an impossible decision.”

Eric Thayer/Bloomberg Photo via Getty Images

Sony Pictures Entertainment is a producer of films. Jeopardy!As thousands of writers from the Writers Guild of America continue to strike over an expired labor contract, the cameras will be rolling. Jeopardy! employs WGA writers to come up with its snappy trivia clues, but for now, without newly written answers and questions available, the show plans to use “a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database, and material that is being redeployed from multiple, multiple seasons of the show,” said Jeopardy! showrunner Michael Davies on this week’s episode of the Inside Jeopardy! podcast. Davies also spoke about the writers’ importance to the show itself and as part of the “family” of behind-the-scenes people who make it. “There is something I have to say right at the outset, and that is how much I admire and miss our writers,” he said. “They are beloved and valued members of the Jeopardy! team, just as they value every other member of our team.”

Jeopardy!Producers have already contacted certain competitors from seasons 37-38 to schedule tape dates for upcoming tournaments. Sony’s reliance on the old content and returning players is an important question for both the show and industry. There is no clear end in sight to the current strike. In an earlier Deadline article, it was reported that WGA and AMPTP had reached a deadlock over returning to bargaining tables.

But according to the WGA, there is no ambiguity in what deciding to appear on the game show would mean for a player’s relationship to the striking workforce.

“The Jeopardy is produced by a struck company,” a WGA spokesperson told Polygon via email. “Anyone participating in a The JeopardyThe production line would consist of The Jeopardy writers who wrote the clues.”

According to one contestant who emailed Polygon, she was able to watch the recording of her season 37 audition. Jeopardy! win stands out as “a completely perfect day.” So when a contestant coordinator called her out of the blue earlier this month to offer a tournament slot, a rush of emotion came flooding back.

“The idea that I get to go back and do this again?” she says. “And this time without the strict COVID regulations? Would someone actually take care of my hair and make-up? Would I be able to take pictures next to the host or even with him? And even better — I would be in a tournament?!? I’ve heard such amazing stories of the tournament experience (win or lose) and I was so excited to be a part of that. My brain was just reeling at this new opportunity that I never thought I would have.”

Still, she politely declined — at least for now. While she was more than happy to play in a tournament again, she would not participate as long as the WGA strike “was unresolved.” The contestant coordinator told her that she wasn’t the first person to come back with that response.

“I am so angry at the show and Sony leadership for doing this,” she says. “Calling with vague invitations on Thursday and then announcing publicly on Monday what the plan was before telling the invitees? The wait to record season 39 [Tournament of Champions] and any possible season 39 Second Chance or Wild Card tournaments until the strike is resolved… but somehow it’s okay to invite season 37/38 players?”

Photo illustration: Will Joel/Polygon | Source photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment

Former champions talking to Polygon regarding being offered an a Jeopardy!Reappearance also expresses a sense of unease about their hopes being in opposition to what the WGA fights for. While the strike circumstances came up in at least one offer, in which a contestant coordinator expressed solidarity with those on strike and affirmed that no union writers crossed the picket line to create new content, the caveats haven’t provided much comfort.

A season 38 player, who spent months preparing for what would turn out to be a two-episode run on the series, notes that while participating in season 40 may not constitute scabbing in the literal sense — he wouldn’t be replacing the striking workers involved with the show — his position as a dues-paying member of a different labor union makes solidarity a priority for him. He won’t undermine the strike.

“I realize that there are other contracts at play among the other crew members that make Jeopardy! possible,” he says, “but we’d still be charged with walking through a passionate group of human beings fighting for their livelihoods in order to play a game. Do I expect them to see my solid-colored business casual wear and practice buzzer and go, ‘Oh, if it’s for Jeopardy! it’s cool?’ Of course not. And I wouldn’t want them to.”

The two other champions of season 38 who were offered spots for a tournament in season 40 say that they are fortunate enough to not feel the pull of potential prize money. But both know that’s not the case for every former contestant that Jeopardy!It is an impossible decision to be made. “I won’t judge them if they accept,” says one of the champions, “but I’m certainly judging the studio for putting us in this position.”

Still, there’s that tug of reliving the rush of play one more time. “I feel like I’ll regret it forever if I decline what is likely my one chance to go back on the show,” one former champion says. “But I’ll also regret it forever if I accept but have to cross the picket line to do it. It honestly makes me wish I’d never gotten the invitation at all.”

Then, Jeopardy!While all the winners Polygon interviewed have strong opinions about the issue, some are still hopeful that it will be resolved before they can participate. One of the season 38 players asked the contestant coordinator to schedule his tape date “as late in the year as possible, because it gives the studios enough time to meet the writers’ demands.” He says he plans to check with his own union’s leadership to “discuss all possible consequences or ramifications to crossing the WGA picket line,” but adds that if Jeopardy!When I asked him to choose now, he would have to say no.

These contestants are all disappointed in their favorite producers for asking. One player refers to it as a “betrayal.” Another says the offer felt like a “gut-punch.” Everyone wanted to return to the Jeopardy!Stage, but nothing like this

“It’s honestly souring my opinion of Jeopardy! for putting us in this position, having to choose between supporting the strike and going back on the show that many of us have loved our whole lives,” says a season 38 champion. “I also think if I decline the invitation, it will be easy for the production to find someone who’s happy to replace me. It makes me wonder if it would be better to just cross the picket line but donate my winnings, than for someone who doesn’t care about the strike at all to take my place. I really don’t know what the right thing is to do.”

The contestant contacted Polygon again a few hours later to confirm that she has declined.

[Disclosure: Samit Sarkar appeared on Jeopardy! in 2021, during season 38, but he is not one of the former contestants who are potentially eligible for the season 40 tournaments.]