Sony Pictures Television, the producer of the long-running gameshows ‘Jeopardy!’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune’, filed a lawsuit accusing its distributor CBS of undercutting their deal and failing to fork over millions of dollars in fees.
“Unfortunately, it is now clear that CBS has fallen woefully short of holding up its end of the bargain,” Sony alleged in a breach of contract suit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. “The reality is that CBS has been egregiously undercutting the value and profitability of these shows in favor of its own self-interest and in violation of its contractual obligations.”
The complaint alleges that CBS, which licenses the shows to TV stations and sells associated advertising space in exchange for commissions, dropped the ball on a number of fronts, from failing to negotiate sufficient licensing fees, to refusing to turn over more than $3.6m in “ill-gotten” fees for long-term deals in New Zealand and Australia that Sony says are contractually barred.
“We strongly refute any claims by Sony that we did not use our best efforts in distributing the programs or otherwise failed to abide by our obligations under the agreements,” CBS said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.
“Sony’s claims are rooted in the fact they simply don’t like the deal the parties agreed to decades ago,” it added.
The suit concerns two of the most high-profile and profitable shows in American television, with the pair estimated to bring in more than $100m in annual profits for Sony.
The complaint alleges that the foreign licensing deals are “just the tip of the iceberg.”
It also claims CBS has been selling local networks bundles of its own wholly produced and owned programs to the detriment of the Sony partnership, and alleges that cuts to CBS’s marketing, distribution, advertising, and foreign distribution teams are causing Sony to incur further costs.
The suit says that CBS’s ongoing dispute with the Nielsen TV ratings agency, which has left the company without a contract with the benchmark-setting audience firm, is yet another headwind against ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy.’
Both shows have endured considerable change in recent years.
In 2023, longtime ‘Wheel’ host Pat Sajak retired this summer after more than 40 years on the program.
‘Jeopardy’ host Alex Trebek died in 2020 from pancreatic cancer and was replaced by Ken Jennings.
