CBS temporarily halts Sony’s bid to control Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune distribution

Sony and CBS have partnered on Jeopardy! for over 40 years

Sony’s bid to gain control of the distribution rights to Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune from CBS was temporarily halted on Wednesday following a ruling by an appeals court in California.

The court order means a temporary pause to last week’s ruling that denied CBS’s bid for an injunction to prevent Sony from taking back the distribution rights to the popular gameshows.

Sony now has until April 28 to reply to the most recent decision and CBS then has until May 9 to give its own response.

In the meantime, CBS is still legally entitled to distribute the two shows, which have become the subject of an ugly back-and-forth legal spat that spilled into public view last year.

The companies have partnered for more than 40 years on the gameshows, which are owned and produced by Sony and distributed by CBS.

Last year, Sony filed a lawsuit against CBS claiming the US broadcast group had licensed the shows at below-market value, gutted the teams that distribute and sell advertising around the shows and been guilty of self-dealing, thus breaching its contract. As a result, Sony claimed it was entitled to terminate its distribution contracts for the gameshows.

For its part, CBS counter-sued, arguing that Sony is attempting to “escape” the current deal by “attempting to obtain in court what it could not get at the bargaining table: the rights to the series for free, by finding any excuse it can muster.”

Both gameshows have both been under the Sony umbrella since 1994, when it acquired their original producer, Merv Griffin Enterprises. Eleven years earlier, Merv Griffin Enterprises signed a long-term deal with production and syndication company King World, which was subsequently acquired by CBS in 1999.

Neither company commented on the most recent update.