Writers strike will delay Green Bay 'Jeopardy!' champ Ben Chan's return for 'Tournament of Champions'

Fans of Green Bay “Jeopardy!” champ Ben Chan will have to wait longer to see him play in the “Tournament of Champions.”

The Writers Guild of America strike will delay the TV quiz show’s annual tournament, which usually tapes in late August and September, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Jeopardy!" employs WGA members to write the show’s clues and has no plans to produce the "Tournament of Champions" until after the WGA strike is resolved, a spokesperson for the show told USA TODAY in a statement late Tuesday.

Chan, an assistant philosophy professor at St. Norbert College in De Pere, cruised to a nine-game winning streak of $252,600 this spring, giving him the third-highest total of any “Jeopardy!” champion during the 2022-23 season and qualifying him for the “Tournament of Champions.”

He’s among the Season 39 champions who had said they would stand alongside fellow champ Ray Lalonde in boycotting the tournament if it were to happen while the strike is going on.

Lalonde, who won $386,400 in 13 games, posted, in part, on social media last week: "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. ... 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.”

Chan shared a tweet on Saturday with Lalonde’s full statement and wrote: “A thoughtful move by Ray Lalonde to get out in front on this, which I am happy to be able to support.”

Several other big winners from last season, including Chris Pannullo with 21 wins and Hannah Wilson with eight, also voiced their support of Lalonde’s post and said they would join him in not taking part.

"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 in the USA TODAY story. “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.”

The statement also says the show's 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" for the upcoming regular season.

This won’t be the first time Chan has had to wait it out to return to “Jeopardy!” After winning three games in April, his appearance on the show was paused after he was unable to travel for the next round of tapings due to COVID-19. “Jeopardy!” brought him back in May to resume his run, which ended at nine games when he misspelled his answer for Final Jeopardy!

Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.