CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA: 'Jeopardy!' has been consistently facing shade from fans and former contestants alike after the reports of the show's response to the ongoing WGA strike. Many came forward to share their disappointment over the show's strategy to recycle the written material, including clues, from previous seasons.
Joining the other former winners in a major boycott against 'Jeopardy!' is the former champion Amy Schneider. She recently took to Twitter to call the game show out on not treating their writers fairly and for not respecting the picket line.
Amy Schneider boycotts 'Jeopardy!'
'Jeopardy!' writers are part of the Writers Guild of America which is currently on a strike with demands for better pay, residuals and policies like requiring studios to staff television shows with a certain number of writers for a specific period. WGA is also against the indiscriminate use of AI, like replacing writers using tech like ChatGPT.
While it is not clear if the writers are being unfairly treated on the game show as well, all the members have joined the picket line in solidarity with the majority of them who have been exploited by the industry. With no writers on the job, 'Jeopardy!' decided to refer to the game show's existing archive of clues.
Quoting a tweet that reported on how 'Jeopardy!' will "recycle material," Schneider tweeted her disapproval of such tactics by the show to tide over the writers' strike. "Disappointed to hear that Jeopardy is considering this course of action," her tweet said, "For what it’s worth, I, too, will not be participating in any Jeopardy productions that don’t use new clues written by their amazing, unionized writers under a fair, collectively bargained contract."
Schneider holds the record of winning the second-most number of consecutive days on the regular run of 'Jeopardy!'. She also went on to with the 'Tournament of Champions' which gathers all the big winners of a regular season. She was later invited to participate in 'Jeopardy! Masters' which was for the particular contestants who had had legendary winning streaks on the show like Sam Buttrey and James Holzhauer. Schneider was able to make it to the quarter-finals before getting eliminated.
Fans 'proud' of Amy Schneider for supporting WGA
Schneider is a beloved figure among 'Jeopardy!' enthusiasts and the favorite contestant from the show for many. It goes without saying that her tweet garnered much attention from 'Jeopardy!' viewers. Many of them came forward to appreciate her decision to boycott the show to support the writers standing on the picket line.
In a Reddit thread about her tweet, a fan wrote, "Really appreciate the support from Amy and all the champions refusing to participate and working to force jeopardy to value its writers. I think people don’t understand that the “stars” are the writers. We love 'Jeopardy' because of writers, not Alex or Ken or Mayim nor even the contestants. Without excellent clues, the show is but a ghost of itself." Another commented, "I was wondering when any pre-S39 champs/alumni were going to speak up. Proud of Amy for doing so, and I hope that any others who support the strike will make their voices heard as well." A fan commented, "I appreciate Amy and the others who will not participate. I am disappointed in the Jeopardy powers that be that made a decision that put them in this position." Another one pointed out that, "It won't be hard for Jeopardy to find people that are willing to appear in a show with recycled clues. If that happens, it's incumbent on viewers not to watch.
Fans further discussed the issue of 'Jeopardy!' reusing clues. A person who has worked close to the show commented, "I'm the EP of Tell Us About Yourself: Conversations with Game Show Contestants. We talked to Carlo Panno, who was a writer on Jeopardy! for a very long time. He let us know that it's common practice to re-use clues that were unrevealed or otherwise unused—in fact, that's what Potpourri categories are, just leftovers. So it's common practice to at least re-use clues that are already written and loaded into the board but not revealed." Former champ Ray Lalonde who also decided to join the picket line commented on the thread with, "Where the clues come from is irrelevant. The producers have just confirmed that they intend to start taping the new season even if the writers remain on strike. Anyone who goes to work on or appears on the show under such conditions is choosing to cross the writers picket line. That's what a struck show means. All I've ever said is that IF the writers are still on strike I won't cross their picket line to be on the show and I encourage anyone who respects the writers to do the same."
