A California judge has stepped in to temporarily block Sony’s efforts to take control of the distribution for Jeopardy!—the last true American meritocracy of any value—and also that other show where people spin the wheel and play Hangman for money, THR reports. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kevin C. Brazile issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of CBS, which says Sony, which produces both Jeopardy! and Wheel Of Fortune, is attempting to use the legal system to freely grab both programs’ lucrative distribution rights for itself.
As we reported earlier this week, Sony delivered an edict recently saying it was delivering just one more week of shows to CBS—which has handled marketing and distribution for both series for 40 years at this point—before taking on those duties (and attendant payments) for itself. The company has expressed its unhappiness in recent months with how CBS has been handling its split of the duties, accusing the Paramount-owned network of dropping the ball on advertising amid layoffs, and negotiating deals in foreign territories that went beyond its rights. The upshot is that the two studios are suing each other, and Sony made the announcement that it was buzzing in its coup on Monday.
Said efforts have now been stymied, at least for the moment: Judge Brazile has granted the temporary restraining order, which means CBS will continue distributing both shows until the courts can actually get into the details here. Both studios issued statements in response to the news, CBS claiming some measure of vindication (“We will continue to seamlessly distribute Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! to our station clients like we have for over 40 years”), while Sony basically issued a “We’ll see,” noting that it “believes it has lawfully terminated the distribution agreements with CBS for the shows and accordingly assumed all global distribution functions. Today the court has instructed SPT to temporarily cease taking on the distribution of the shows until the Court can further hear from the parties on this issue in the near future. To be clear, the Court’s order has no bearing on, and is not indicative of, the eventual outcome of the ongoing litigation.”
Both shows are about as successful as syndicated game shows get: Each brings in north of 7 million viewers on average; Wheel posted higher numbers than Jeopardy! as recently as last October, a rare win possibly influenced by Ryan Seacrest’s recent takeover of its hosting duties.
