the annual Danger! The Tournament of Champions may lose some champions.
Several big winners from the 2022-23 season say they won’t participate in the tournament for the duration of the writers’ strike. Danger! employs members of the Writers Guild of America, and the syndicated game show plans to build on material from previous seasons (39 years) as it begins taping shows for the 2023-24 season, sources said. the hollywood reporter. The Tournament of Champions is usually recorded at the end of August and September.
Ray Lalonde, a Toronto television builder and painter who made $386,400 in 13 games last season, wrote in a post on the Danger! reddit forum who declined his invitation to the Tournament of Champions because he does not want to cross the WGA picket lines: “I am and always will be grateful for the experience I had on the show and the opportunity to participate in TOC is more than a dream come true for me. Having said that, I believe the show’s writers are a vital part of the show and are justified in taking labor action to secure a fair contract for themselves and their fellow WGA members. As a supporter of the union movement, the son of a union member, and a proud member of the union, I have informed the producers of the show that if the strike remains unresolved, I will not be picketing to play in the tournament of champions.”
Several other big winners from last season — Chris Pannullo, Hannah Wilson, Ben Chan, Troy Meyer, Ben Goldstein, Luigi de Guzman and Suresh Krishnan — responded to Lalonde’s post or posted on other social media saying they would join him in declining to participate. Celebrity Danger! Winner Ike Barinholtz was also scheduled to participate in the Tournament of Champions, but as a member of the WGA he will not participate in a surprise production. Pannullo, Lalonde, Chan and Wilson had the four highest total earnings in Danger! in 2022-23.
THR has asked Danger! producer Sony Pictures TV for their comments and will update this story with any responses.
