Judge rules Sony can take “Wheel”, “Jeopardy!” rights from CBS
Paramount Global to appeal ruling in last-minute bid
In a surprise ruling Thursday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge sided with Sony in their battle with CBS Media Ventures over syndication rights of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. Barring any appeals (which will likely happen), Sony will take over distribution to 200+ stations in the United States starting Monday, including ABC-owned WLS-TV Chicago.
Judge Kevin Brazille stated, “Sony can begin distributing the Shows and need not deliver episodes to CBS.” Sony tried to take over rights two months ago, but was stopped by a restraining order.
Not so fast, says CBS as the Paramount Global-owned entity has appealed the ruling and asked for a stay. “This is only a preliminary ruling based on partial evidence, not the outcome of the full case”, CBS said. “We’re confident once all the evidence is heard at trial, we will prevail on the merits. In today’s ruling, the court itself recognized the balance of harm tips in CBS’s favor, so we will ask the appellate court for a stay pending our appeal.”
Last November, Sony sued CBS, claiming the company violated the terms of its syndication contracts among other things, making unauthorized deals for the shows in Australia and New Zealand, selling the programs at below-market rates, and bundling them with lower-rated CBS Media Ventures programming such as The Drew Barrymore Show, and laying off personnel related to the shows’ advertising, marketing, and distribution. CBS countersued, stating Sony wanted to get out of its deal and syndicate the shows themselves.
In testimony, a network affiliate manager noted that CBS tried to sell them other syndicated products in conjunction with Wheel and Jeopardy. CBS denied this was the case, though program bundling has always been standard in syndication, dating back to the 1980s when, for example, Telepictures was marketing The People’s Court and Love Connection to stations as a package (both aired at NBC-owned WMAQ-TV and later CBS-owned WBBM-TV). At the same time, King World did the same with Wheel and Jeopardy.
The downturn in the relationship with Sony and CBS, which inherited the shows in 1999 after acquiring King World, began in 2019 after Viacom and CBS recombined after fourteen years apart (Viacom originally re-merged with CBS in 1999, 28 years after the network spun off the company due to the just-established financial interest and syndication rules, which were repealed in 1995.) Sony claimed the newly combined entity stopped committing promotion dollars to the shows as it became less of a priority.
Sony sold primetime celebrity editions of Wheel and Jeopardy to ABC without the involvement of CBS, as ABC’s owned stations already aired both shows in syndication.
Existing contracts with local stations are valid through 2028, but Sony is looking to make each show available on same-day streaming, raising speculation that both shows could be exiting linear TV at the end of their current deals. Sony is planning to make both available for streaming on a delayed basis as early as this fall and is soliciting bids from streamers. A syndicator change could open the door for those stations – including those owned by ABC and parent company Disney – to renegotiate those contracts.
Even if CBS Media Ventures loses both shows, it would still have programming from its genre in its stable—the recently renewed Flip Side, the new game show Perfect Line with now-former Inside Edition host Deborah Norville, and Debmar-Mercury’s Family Feud, for which it sells national ad sales.