Double Jeopardy! CBS Hits Back At Sony In Game Show Profits & Rights Battle
By Dominic Patten
Dominic Patten
Executive Editor, Legal, Labor & Politics
@DeadlineDominic
More Stories By Dominic
Double Jeopardy! CBS Hits Back At Sony In Game Show Profits & Rights Battle
Marilyn Manson To Pay Evan Rachel Wood’s $330K Legal Fees As Shock Rocker Deep-Sixes Defamation Suit Against ‘Westworld’ Star
Alec Baldwin Could Be Back In Court Soon Over Fatal ‘Rust’ Shooting Thanks To New Appeal Effort By Prosecutor
View All
November 26, 2024 1:40pm
Services to share this page.
Share on Facebook
Post
Share to Flipboard
Email
Show more sharing options
Jeopardy! hosted by Ken Jennings
'Jeopardy!'
Sony Pictures Television
Less than a month after Sony whacked CBS with a breach of contract lawsuit over blockbuster game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, the soon to be Skydance-owned broadcaster is slamming Sony as a bad actor looking to snag the shows for next to nothing.
“Sony is attempting to obtain in court what it could not get at the bargaining table: the rights to the Series for free, by finding any excuse it can muster,” CBS’ outside lawyers Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP put it to now defendants Sony Pictures TV Studios, Jeopardy Productions and Califon Productions in a cross-complaint filed Tuesday.
Related Stories
'Jeopardy!' and 'Wheel of Fortune' lawsuit
What Is Self-Dealing? ‘Jeopardy!’ & ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ Profits At Heart Of Sony’s Suit Against CBS
Rosa Salazar Joins Matthew Gray Gubler In ‘Einstein’ CBS Pilot
In other words: Think hard before you try to pull out of these deals and mess with us.
Watch on Deadline
The video player is currently playing an ad.
It’s worth noting that CBS in its first response to Sony’s October 31 suit cited the “billions of dollars of revenue” its long-standing deals for Wheel and Jeopardy! generated for the company. Billions of dollars will surely be the mantra for this case going forward, on both sides.
Today, CBS painted Sony as simply too heavy handed, and too greedy.
“Needless to say, CBS is disappointed by Sony’s decision to turn its back on the Parties’ longstanding relationship, to attempt to renounce the decades’ worth of efforts that CBS has invested into distributing and arranging for the distribution of the Series, and to attempt and escape the bargain it willingly made,” reads the complaint that went into the Los Angeles Superior Court docket today. “Therefore, through these claims, CBS seeks to hold Sony to the Agreements, and CBS remains committed to continuing to occupy its mantle as Sony’s trusted partner and distributor of the Series for the next four decades and beyond.”
As expected in a case like this, CBS is seeking a variety of damages from Sony. CBS also wants a court order explicitly saying that Sony “cannot terminate the Agreements based on any alleged breach of the best effort clause and covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”
On the flip side, it is that very notion of fairness that Sony said back on October 31 pressed it to take CBS to court.
“CBS’s failures and pattern of financially self-interested behavior — which at bottom come down to putting its own business interests over its contractual obligations to Sony Pictures — are straightforward breaches of the agreements’ express best-efforts clauses and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” the 19-page jury-seeking complaint that kicked off the court battle said last month.
Now it may end up being winner take all.
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings