Several Jeopardy! winners who were scheduled to compete in the forthcoming Tournament of Champions have committed not to compete in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America strike and threatens to interrupt one of the show’s biggest annual events.
Ray Lalonde, 13-time winner on the Jeopardy!, stated on Reddit and in a Facebook group on Friday that while participating 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, a dedicated IATSE member specializing in scenic design says that, “there are credible reports suggesting that the producers are considering fallback options, such as utilizing old or recycled material, to begin filming the next season of the show if the strike remains unresolved.
Despite this uncertainty, Lalonde took a moment to commend the hard work and dedication of the the show writers and their current endeavors to negotiate a new deal with the studios.
“My hope in saying this publicly now is to perhaps influence some future decision to proceed without the writers and to encourage any others in the community who feel the same way to speak out as well,” he said at the end of his post. “A few small voices may not change any minds but we can try.”
Luigi de Guzman, another winner from last season, showed support to Lalonde, “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.”
Troy Meyer, Suresh Krishnan, and Cris Pannullo echoed Lalonde’s thoughts, while Dan Wohl proposed a tournament of their own.
