Television

Lawsuits May Be Coming Over Jeopardy Champ's Final Episode

Spoilers can make for some heated legal action.

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(Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty)

Before Jeopardy phenom James Holzhauer’s defeat on Monday, people were already chattering about the end of his epic run because many had already watched it happen. Somewhere along the line, someone leaked clips of the episode and tipped off the world and now Jeopardy might pursue legal action.

Maybe they can make back some of the money they owe Holzhauer.

The working theory is that someone with a local affiliate — the folks who get copies of the episodes before airtime — put the word out there. As one might expect, that’s a breach of the show’s agreement with the stations and a duty the show takes pretty seriously:

[Seth] Berenzweig compared the event to someone pirating the final five minutes of HBO’s Game of Thrones finale and releasing it early on social media.

Yes, what if Americans were able to be thoroughly disappointed a few hours early? I mean, Bran knew how it was going to end and he looking frigging miserable the whole time.

But one potential stumbling block for Jeopardy’s lawsuit is that it’s hard to tell exactly what harm the show suffered:

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“This apparent breach was egregious, given the heightened viewership with the record-setting performance of the contestant, who was on the cusp of breaking the show’s all-time record,” Berenzweig said. “The harm from this is significant, because many viewers may have decided to not watch the show after hearing the spoiler alert, which would decrease ratings for advertisers.”

Despite the spoiler, the “Jeopardy!” episode that aired Monday night was the top-rated installment of the show since May 2005, according to Nielsen. But could viewership have been even higher?

Objectively, there’s an argument that Monday’s episode was the greatest game of Jeopardy ever played. The players combined to offer only one wrong answer — or question as the case may be — the entire game. It was bonkers and America flocked to the episode in droves whether or not they knew the outcome because figuring out how James managed to finally tumble was worth the half-hour investment.

There’s doubtless a defined penalty in the contract, but the really big bucks would seem to be off the table given the show’s ratings. A producer from the show said they’re looking to take “very, very, very appropriate” action. That’s a bit vague to decipher, but we’ll take a shot:

What is a lawsuit? Alex.

‘Jeopardy!’ star James Holzhauer’s leaker could face legal trouble [Fox Business]

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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