As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, CBS has suffered significant blow in the ongoing war mxdwn previously reported on between them and Sony. A Judge has issued a temporary ruling that Sony can now take over the distribution of its coveted Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune shows, which continue to remain among the most watched syndicated programming on television.
Supreme Court Judge Kevin Brazile of LA blocked CBS’s bid to stop Sony from assuming distribution of its shows, via The Hollywood Reporter. The two have had a long-standing contract that allowed for CBS to take on the responsibility of distributing the shows, a responsibility that Sony claims CBS has not lived up to.
The Hollywood Reporter continues on to claim that CBS Media Ventures immediately rebutted, saying, “This is only a preliminary ruling based on partial evidence, not the outcome of the full case. We’re confident once all the evidence is heard at trial, we will prevail on the merits. In today’s ruling, the court itself recognized the balance of harm tips in CBS’s favor, so we will ask the appellate court for a stay pending our appeal.”
This has all been part of an ongoing feud where Sony has accused CBS of licensing the show at below market rates, failure to maximize advertising revenue, and overall being incompetent of fulfilling its end of the contract due to their gutting of the staff who were responsible for all aspects of the shows livelihood.
The Hollywood Reporter says that CBS maintains it has made Sony billions and fires back that Sony is unfairly trying to get out of their deal. This all comes during time when CBS is at the receiving end of a major 20 billion dollar lawsuit from President Trump. The lawsuit alleges that CBS aided his opponent in the 2024 election cycle by allegedly deceptively editing then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s widely mocked 60 Minutes interview. The interview gained attention when one version was originally aired during Face the Nation and an alternate version was aired during the prime-time special. Later, the FCC acquired the full, unedited version of the interview and released it to the public.