Ken Jennings fired back at a “Jeopardy!” fan who called the game show host a “disgrace” Sunday, slamming the former champ for crossing the writers’ strike picket line.
“You’re a disgrace if you’re trying to cross picket lines,” one furious fan posted on X (formerly Twitter). “Alex [Trebek] would NEVER do anything of the sort. He would turn over his grave seeing you act like that.”In response, Jennings, 49, posted a statement from Sony Pictures regarding how the company will approach the upcoming season.
“’Jeopardy!’ has a long history with and tremendous respect for the WGA and our writers,” reads the statement. “We have always been careful to honor our WGA agreements and we would never air game material not created by WGA writers.”
The exchange comes as the long-running game show plans to begin shooting its 40th season Tuesday after it was announced that due to the ongoing Writer’s Guild of America strike, the show would be using recycled material.
The snarky host then pointed out that the syndicated game show will also show episodes that have never aired.“However, just as we did, led by Alex Trebek, during the 2007-2008 strike, we will deliver first-run episodes again this fall.”
This would not be the first time the “Jeopardy!” GOAT has crossed the picket line.Earlier this year, Jennings crossed over to host the remainder of the show’s 39th season when his co-host Mayim Bialik backed the striking writers.The WGA strike has also impacted the Tournament of Champions after several contestants refused to participate.
“Jeopardy! never had any intention of producing a Tournament of Champions for Season 39 until the strike is resolved,” a show spokesperson confirmed to The Post.
“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,” former champ Ray Lalonde wrote in a Reddit post in the r/Jeopardy forum.
Veteran champion James Holzhauer also slammed the show for the new format after showrunner Michael Davies made the announcement on the “Inside Jeopardy” podcast.“If you don’t have time to listen, here’s the executive summary of today’s announcement,” Holzhauer, 39, tweeted. “1:00-2:00: Jeopardy’s writers are invaluable and we couldn’t produce the show without them,” he continued. “2:00-15:00: Here is how we will produce the upcoming season without them.”
As of Monday, the celebrated game show has been airing reruns which will be followed by two weeks of Producers’ Picks until the new season airs in September.
Post a Comment