Star Trek: Picard actor Wil Wheaton recently threatened Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings after it was reported he would fill into host the show after Mayim Bialik reportedly chose to stop hosting due to the Writers Guild of America’s strike.
Deadline reported on May 11th that Mayim Bialik chose to stop hosting the game show to stand “in solidarity with the striking writers.” However, the outlet also reported that Jennings would take over hosting duties on the show with the final episodes of Season 39 being filmed this week at the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City.
The show had prepared for the pending writer’s strike and had written the questions for this most recent season in advance.
In response to Jennings choosing to host the final episodes of the season, Wheaton took to Facebook where he threatened, “This is a VERY small town, Ken Jennings, and we will all remember this. Your privilege may protect you right now, but we will *never* forget. #WGAStrong.”
Wheaton would later add an edit further explaining his threat, “This is getting more attention than I expected or wanted, and I don’t want this to be about me being disappointed by a choice Ken Jennings made. I want attention and energy focused on supporting the writers who are fighting for their professional existence, opposed by billionaires who are keen to ruin my entire industry.”
He continued, “I’ll offer one example of how outrageous the AMPTP’s position is: David Zaslav is the new CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery. Last year, he was paid about a quarter of a BILLION dollars. That’s one man who is already a billionaire. Quoting Adam Conover, ‘That’s about the same level as what 10,000 writers are asking him to pay all of us collectively.’
“The needs of the many outweigh the greed of the few, or the one, y’all,” Wheaton wrote. “And that isn’t even the worst of it. I haven’t gotten into the issues of what are called mini rooms, and how we will all deal with the emergence of AI. It’s f***ing terrible.”
“The WGA is not being unreasonable. I stand with my fellow union members, and I urge you to do the same,” he concluded.
Wheaton is not the only person to issue a threat to someone they believe is crossing the picket line over the Writers Guild of America strike. WGA member Abdullah Saeed targeted Andor creator Tony Gilroy and accused him of “scabbing” in an Instagram post earlier this month.
He wrote, “This is scabbing. There’s no way a writer/producer can ‘finish’ writing and begin solely producing. And if the scripts truly are finished, let’s see em. If there’s one word different in the finished product, kick Tony Gilroy out of the WGA.”
He continued, “One of the biggest writers in Hollywood could stand with his union and halt production on his hit show, thereby by forcing a major studio to consider WGA demands a little harder.”
“Instead, he has chosen to be a SCAB! We all want Andor s2, but not at the cost of fairness to writers,” Saeed concluded.
Following the accusation, Gilroy issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, “I discontinued all writing and writing-related work on Andor prior to midnight, May 1. After being briefed on the Saturday showrunner meeting, I informed Chris Keyser at the WGA on Sunday morning that I would also be ceasing all non-writing producing functions.”
What do you make of Wheaton’s threat to Ken Jennings?