'Jeopardy!' Delays Tournament of Champions After Past Winners Threaten Not to Return

The next season of the beloved game show was in question as fan favorites publicly stated their displeasure with production choices

The annual Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions has been delayed indefinitely.

After former champions announced their intent to stand in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) amid its strike for fair wages, Sony Pictures Television announced Tuesday that the show would be postponed. The milestone season 40 will continue and is set to air on Sept. 11, relying on material from former seasons.

The popular game show has been on air for 39 seasons with guild writers penning the tricky brainteasers.

“Our words are on the screen every night,” writer Michele Loud told Variety on the picket lines in May just days after the strike began. “There is no Jeopardy! without writers. Without us it’s just an empty blue screen.” 

Related: Substitute Teacher Sam Kavanaugh Wins $250,000 in 'Jeopardy!' Tournament of Champions

The annual fan-favorite Tournament of Champions typically films in August and September but is now not set to tape until after the strike has been resolved.

“Jeopardy! never had any intention of producing a Tournament of Champions for season 39 until the strike is resolved,” a spokesperson for the show said in a statement to PEOPLE. “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.”

Related: Everything to Know About the Hollywood Writers Guild Strike, Including the TV Shows and Movies Affected

The statement continued by saying the show has “a long history with and tremendous respect for the WGA 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,” the statement continued. “However, just as we did, led by Alex Trebek, during the 2007-2008 strike, we will deliver first-run episodes again this fall…featuring the best of our WGA written material.”

Related: Why Jeopardy!'s Next Season Is an Open Question as Former Winners Threaten Not to Return

Former winners Ben Chan, Cris Pannullo, Hannah Wilson, Troy Meyer and Ray Lalonde — who were slated to play in the trivia game show’s annual tournament — spurred the delay when they recently announced they would not participate if the strike continues into the fall.

In a post shared to Reddit, Lalonde wrote that the game show was already "making contingency plans to start filming the next season of the show with old and/or recycled material if the WGA strike remains unresolved."

"I believe that the show’s writers are a vital part of the show and they are justified in taking their job action to secure a fair contract for themselves and their fellow WGA members,” Lalonde, a 13-time winner and a member of IATSE (a union for film, TV and theater crew workers) wrote in his post. “As a supporter of the trade union movement, a union member’s son and a proud union member myself, I have informed the show’s producers that if the strike remains unresolved I will not cross a picket line to play in the tournament of champions."

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Many former winners, including all of the slated contestants for the upcoming tournament, replied to Lalonde’s post or posted elsewhere on social media saying they would join him in declining to take part.

A Jeopardy! spokesperson told PEOPLE the show plans to share "more news about exciting plans and enhancements to the contestant experience for this upcoming season and beyond" in the next month. They also added that "Everyone at Jeopardy! hopes that the guilds and the AMPTP can reach a fair resolution quickly."

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