Jeopardy! contestants weigh 2nd shot at glory vs. crossing picket line

August 11, 2023 7:36 AM

“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.
posted by Etrigan (33 comments total)

Mine too.
posted by box at 7:42 AM on August 11, 2023

I'm empathetic, but sometimes convictions require making tough decisions to prove they're genuine. Yeah, it sucks; being a good person is rarely easy or more people would do it.
posted by Dark Messiah at 7:44 AM on August 11, 2023 [33 favorites]

Yeah, I don't see how this is a tough choice at all. You don't cross a picket line. It's a game show. You'll live.
posted by rhymedirective at 7:51 AM on August 11, 2023 [39 favorites]

It's pretty clear in the article that every contestant they quoted landed at "no"; the toughness of the decision is not, I think, one of it being hard to navigate ethically—everybody seems squarely in "this is an ethically fucked thing to ask us to do" territory in the end—but it being hard to have an ethically fucked proposal tied up to one of your biggest personal dreams.

It's not hard to conclude that the answer needs to be no, won't do it. It's harder to navigate the emotional wreckage you've just been told to crawl through by someone who knows how much you wish you could say yes. Sticking to your convictions isn't an analgesic.
posted by cortex at 7:59 AM on August 11, 2023 [83 favorites]

well said, cortex. (speaking as someone who would dearly love a second shot at Jeopardy.)
posted by martin q blank at 8:16 AM on August 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Michael Davies delenda est.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:55 AM on August 11, 2023

I went through the same thing back before I was on in 2008. The writer's strike occurred during the period when as an LA contestant they wanted me to come in as a back-up. (They require this of LA area folks - be an emergency person in case everyone breaks their ankles on the way to the podiums)

I seriously debated about what to do - and then they settled the strike before I was required, so phew.. dilemma resolved.
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:56 AM on August 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

If they can do the show without writers, why not do the show? We still have news, and sports, and tons of stuff without writers or actors per se. Why not a trivia quiz game show. Maybe the answers will be a bit less je ne sais quois but they also have decades and decades of old questions to recycle. Maybe it will suck without writers, maybe it won't.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:09 AM on August 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

The only times I have watched Jeopardy in the past several years is when I'm at the gym and it's on one of the TVs. The little bit I'd heard about this situation previously (would be Tournament of Champions participants not being willing to cross the picket line, Ken Jennings hosting because Mayim Bialik wouldn't cross either) has made me feel very weird about watching the show at all.
posted by AirSpencer at 9:13 AM on August 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

If they can do the show without writers, why not do the show?

Because an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:16 AM on August 11, 2023 [30 favorites]

As far as I'm concerned, this is a textbook cursed-money situation, and the best move is not to play at all. But if (IF!) you take this opportunity and come back with any (ANY!) amount in winnings, you have one of two options:

1) Donate the full amount and not one penny less to an applicable strike fund to support the people whose gigs got hijacked by scabs (Looking at you, Ken Jennings.) and maybe add a little extra on top of that.

2) Fully internalize the idea that however you choose to spend or invest that money, it will inevitably turn into dirt in your hands, ashes in your mouth, and burning coals under your feet.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:21 AM on August 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm second order connected to a bunch of Jeopardy champs on Facebook, and my understanding is that it took a lot of the champs saying 'nuh uh, won't do it', spearheaded by Ray LaLonde, before they pushed the Tournament of Champions back. The announcement was very 'oh, we never intended to tape the ToC while writers were out' but I don't buy that. And I especially buy it less now that they're trying to tape this other tournament instead.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:46 AM on August 11, 2023 [6 favorites]

If they can do the show without writers, why not do the show?

They're not doing the show without writers. They're doing the show without writers at the moment:

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,”

posted by Etrigan at 9:47 AM on August 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

Is there any place I can see what the studios are offering and what the union(s) are asking for? I know one of the issues is residuals on streaming. (I think). Also, is the contract expired or is the union seeking to renegotiate?

The music industry learned to live in a streaming world, I don't see why the studios and writers can't. While I don't think that unions are always right, this seems like a pretty obvious and fair ask that they get paid for streams.

As for crossing the picket line to appear as a contestant on Jeopardy!, I would like to think I would say no thank you, but until I am actually asked, I don't know.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:27 AM on August 11, 2023

I hope the writers get their demands met and soon because I want to see Metafilter's very own, theodolite, in that Tournament of Champs this year.
posted by NoMich at 11:03 AM on August 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

Writer's Guild is going back to the table today, supposedly with the Producer's Guild - it's becoming a weekly thing now. (we're at the 100 day mark on the strike)

The asks on the part of the Writer's Guild

• Increased wages for writers as the average wage has gone down
• Duration and staffing guarantees on contracts as the gigs have gotten a lot shorter with more bouncing between rooms - this is actually the big sticking point in the conversation and the biggest piece for the Writer's Guild because it's not just pay, but insurance and bennys as well
• AI protections
• Streaming residuals - because that's how you bridge jobs

(And frankly, musicians still get a raw deal on per stream payments)

Important to note that Jeopardy! is (I think) the only (or one of the only) game show with Guild writers on it and it shows in the quality of the clueing. It's a neat trick to thread "challenging enough for trivia nerds, but not so hard as to turn off the general public"
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:08 AM on August 11, 2023 [9 favorites]

→ someone who knows how much you wish you could say yes

I'd be surprised if the “they're nerds, enough of 'em will break ranks” suggestion wasn't made inside the studio.
posted by scruss at 11:12 AM on August 11, 2023

Thanks drewbage1847 for the info. Seems reasonable to me.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:23 AM on August 11, 2023

Is there any place I can see what the studios are offering and what the union(s) are asking for? I know one of the issues is residuals on streaming. (I think). Also, is the contract expired or is the union seeking to renegotiate?

I just watched the "Pod Save America" interview with Adam Conover and thought it was a good introduction to a number of the issues, albeit with a clear slant given that Adam is on the WGA negotiating committee. (I also think Jon does a great job of asking about some of the broader issues and getting that discussion into the interview).
posted by BlueDuke at 12:01 PM on August 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

The music industry learned to live in a streaming world

Granted that my perspective on the workings of the music world is limited to a few indie musicians in various genres, all of them say streaming residuals suck and they've adapted by touring. So that's not a model that's going to work for screenwriters.

Something I don't think I've come across is what impact streaming has had on songwriting as a profession. If anyone has any good links on that, I'd be interested.
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:01 PM on August 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

I gotta say I am disappointed with Ken Jennings, whom I used to know when we played on the West Coast Quiz Bowl circuit. He was even pretty liberal, at least for someone who's a Mormon. I think I know at least one online friend who has been given a second chance at Jeopardy! glory but only if he crosses a picket line. I think it's disgraceful how the producers of Jeopardy! are dangling second chances in front of some really good players just so they can break a strike.
posted by jonp72 at 12:34 PM on August 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Jennings is in a tough spot. He's not union, neither was Alex Trebek and during that 2007-2008 writers strike, Alex still carried on hosting. With everything right and pure, Jennings would step off the stage, but if Trebek didn't do it with how well established he was, I can see the pressure being worse. (Plus, Mayim probably had strike protections written into her contract as a union performer)
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:57 PM on August 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

This is indeed shitty of Jeopardy!, but ever since they declined to become Geordipardy!, my opinion cannot possibly be soured any further than it already is.

NEVER FORGET
posted by Flunkie at 1:05 PM on August 11, 2023 [5 favorites]

As a patreon supporter of Ken's podcast I am annoyed by this.

I'm not angry. This is a gray area where the threat of retribution by Sony or the studio is pretty high, and gameshows (apart from the question writers) exist outside the contracts at play. And the precedent is for the show to continue. I have no idea what is going into everyone's decisions here so I can't judge them.

But I wish Ken would walk off. He's got the resources to be relatively safe, even if the chances he'd be fired are significant. I actually wonder if, as a credited producer, if he'd be open to lawsuit for breech of contract. Or maybe the crew all have secretly approached him and told him they all need the paycheck and can't afford the show being suspended. I have no idea. But I would support the heck out him walking off the production.

(addendum: on review, I am actually not a patreon supporter of Omnibus, I think I'm on the "support once a year for a month and cancel" plan)
posted by midmarch snowman at 2:21 PM on August 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I read a while ago that Ken was wrestling with what to do, as he was considering all the other crew who need to work to live. This could be a type of clever backdoor propaganda on the shows part. But in any case, no Jeopardy for me until after the strike.
posted by Glibpaxman at 2:41 PM on August 11, 2023

Yeah, Ken is in a weird place being both management and talent.
posted by indexy at 2:50 PM on August 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm glad to have one reason to think well of Mayim Bialik, who in the past has made nasty comments about modesty and sexual harassment and in the present is using her degree to hawk scammy brain supplements.
posted by praemunire at 3:02 PM on August 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

I just watched the "Pod Save America" interview with Adam Conover and thought it was a good introduction to a number of the issues, albeit with a clear slant given that Adam is on the WGA negotiating committee. (I also think Jon does a great job of asking about some of the broader issues and getting that discussion into the interview).

Just to add another source, the podcast "A More Civilized Age" released an episode this week in which they interview Adam Conover as well. Normally, AMCA is a deep dive into Star Wars, but with SAG-AFTRA asking non-SAG-AFTRA podcasters doing rewatches to think about what TV & movies they are covering, they take a step back to get Adam to discuss the issues in some depth. I found it quite interesting and informative, as someone who has only paid passing attention to the issues at play in the strike.

Basically, if you'd like to learn more, its worth a listen even if you don't care about what AMCA normally discusses.
posted by nubs at 4:33 PM on August 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Jennings is in a tough spot. He's not union, neither was Alex Trebek and during that 2007-2008 writers strike, Alex still carried on hosting.

I can understand some paycheque to paycheque employee choosing to cross a picket line to keep paying rent and food and I don't really know anything about Jennings but if you have the resources of multi millionaire Alex Trebek I'm going to think a lot less of you for crossing a picket line.
posted by Mitheral at 6:32 PM on August 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Because an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us.
What about them? Who's the not-us that you're throwing under the bus. Can't have us without them.

Metafilter: we only care about us, fuck them.

So sad.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:23 AM on August 12, 2023

What about them? Who's the not-us that you're throwing under the bus. Can't have us without them.

You do realize that I was literally quoting a famous slogan of the IWW meant to point out the importance of union solidarity, right?
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:09 AM on August 12, 2023 [9 favorites]

Hosts are often in awkward spots in strikes. They made all the late night hosts go back to work during the 07-08 strike because they contractually could, despite the fact that they all rely on writers rooms for their stuff. It’s what lead to the really weird night where Stewart, Colbert, and Conan ended up having a pretend brawl that stretched across all three of their shows because they were so hard up for content. Jon Stewart made it clear it wasn’t a normal situation by calling his program “A Daily Show”.

All of which is to say I’m cutting Jennings some slack here. Not infinite slack, but some.
posted by dry white toast at 10:07 PM on August 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

If they can do the show without writers, why not do the show?

I think there's a few different levels here:

First, there are people who are themselves union members (or not) doing strikebreaking work - straight up scabbing, the way union folks would see it.

Second, there are shows like Jeopardy where previously prepared work (which was under the old contract) has been prepared by writers who are currently on strike and people who are not themselves members of entertainment unions are asked to nonetheless work on them.

Third, there are people working on shows which ordinarily have writers but which conceivably be done without them such as talk shows. This is really going to depend on what they can be contractually forced to do since they themselves are not on strike and do not have the legal protections of a striking worker.

Fourth, there are things like the news and sports which are on TV but don't use writers anyway.

I think that we can keep these separate and note that the middle category can be hard to navigate both morally and legally.

If I was labour, I would personally not be comfortable with the second and third categories but I can understand that not everybody will always feel that way and do think it is worth keeping mind that this is not quite the same as going and doing a writing job while the writer's union is out on strike.
posted by atrazine at 5:21 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]