By Kayla DeKraker
Sony has made deals with Hulu, Disney+ and Peacock to stream JEOPARDY! and WHEEL OF FORTUNE despite an ongoing legal battle with CBS over the rights to those shows.
Although some people see the move as suspicious, Sony Pictures Chairman Keith LeGoy says it doesn’t affect the litigation.
“This is completely separate from those,” he explained in a statement. “We have a long historic thing with CBS. They are the distributor for syndicated broadcast television.”
He clarified, “There is a pending litigation, which I really can’t talk too much about, because it’s pending litigation. The documents are out there in the public domain, if people really care to read them, but that is pursuing its course and will get resolved in due course. We feel pretty good about our arguments and that we will prevail.”
Oddly enough, the decision was made only days after courts ruled for CBS to hold the sole rights to the shows.
“Then, we told, or asked, CBS to mirror that in all of the other syndication deals that they did, so that we could do this without surprising or upsetting any of the syndication partners, who are incredibly important to us,” LeGoy explained. “These shows are the number one and number two shows on television in a world where people say that broadcast is [dead], these shows still get 7/8M viewers every single day.”
He explained that the goal for streaming the classic game shows is to bring them to new audiences.
“What we wanted to do with streaming was to really give ourselves the chance to find a new and different audience,” he said. “We believe that the syndication audience and the streaming audience don’t cross over that much. This is going to be amplifying these shows and broadening their appeal, rather than cannibalizing any existing partnerships.”
WHEEL OF FORTUNE and JEOPARDY! are both long-standing game shows. WOF is currently entering its 43rd season and is newly hosted by Ryan Seacrest and veteran Vanna White.
Related: JEOPARDY Honors Former Host Alex Trebek With Special Game Category
JEOPARDY! its 42nd season and was hosted by Alex Trebek before Ken Jennings replaced him.
Previously LeGoy expressed excitement over the new show deals.
“We are thrilled to bring America’s favorite game shows to an even wider audience on Hulu, Hulu on Disney+, and Peacock,” he said. “JEOPARDY! and WHEEL OF FORTUNE are two of the most successful game shows in television history and we look forward to giving fans the best possible streaming access to our shows this fall.”
Time will tell if the new deals will affect the ongoing litigation or if it will be a non-issue. Until then, viewers can enjoy these classic shows on multiple platforms.
Read Next: JEOPARDY! and WHEEL OF FORTUNE’s Fate Decided in Recent Court Battle
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