'Jeopardy!' delays new episodes after protests from former players abiding by writers strike

foxnews.com:

The immediate future of "Jeopardy!" has been up in the air since the writers strike began in May, and now fans are learning what they can expect.

After multiple contestants from the current season stated on social media that they would not be competing in the yearly Tournament of Champions because of the strike, a spokesperson for the show released a statement explaining that while the tournament won't take place, the main show will run new episodes in the fall. "'Jeopardy!' never had any intention of producing a Tournament of Champions for season 39 until the strike is resolved," the statement, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, began. "Further, no contestants from season 39 have been contacted regarding their availability for any postseason tournaments, including the TOC.The ‘Jeopardy!’ postseason represents the pinnacle of our competition, and it should feature our strongest players playing our toughest original material." Going on to explain how the show has managed to produce new episodes during the strike, the spokesperson stated, "'Jeopardy!' has a long history with and tremendous respect for the WGA {Writer's Guild of America) and our writers.

We have always been careful to honor our WGA agreements and we would never air game material not created by WGA writers." "However, just as we did, led by Alex Trebek, during the 2007-2008 strike, we will deliver first-run episodes again this fall to more than 200 affiliate stations nationwide.

Our current plan is to go into a holding pattern of sorts, pushing back the season 39 postseason to first produce original episodes featuring the best of our WGA written material." The announcement concluded, "Everyone at ‘Jeopardy!’ hopes that the guilds and the AMPTP (Alliance of.