Ken Jennings has been relatively quiet regarding the debate over whether he should continue hosting Jeopardy amid the dual Hollywood strikes — but his Omnibus podcast co-host John Roderick certainly hasn’t.
Jennings first started getting backlash when he stepped in for Mayim Bialik — who left during the last week of taping in May to stand in solidarity with the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) strike. The issue has only grown since it was announced that he began filming the upcoming season earlier this month — and that he would take over Bialik’s hosting duties on Celebrity Jeopardy.
In light of the social media ire, Roderick rushed to the Jeopardy champ’s defense after users with “idiot opinions” went as far as to call him a “scab,” which is a term used for someone who crosses the picket line and works during a strike.
“If you look at SAG-AFTRA rules there are contractual carve-outs for daytime television and game shows specifically. Ken is a member of SAG in good standing,” Roderick wrote in a lengthy Facebook post, per TV Insider. “Everyone in Hollywood is aware that different unions have different rules and different contracts apply differently to different jobs.”
After noting that there are “tens of thousands of union workers in Hollywood still working,” he added, “Ken is not a scab and anyone who says so is ignorant of how unions work. It amazes me that so many people who think they are supporting labor by yelling scab on a public forum are just revealing they have no idea how organized labor functions.”
Roderick — who said there are also “a lot of people” actually in Hollywood unions who “don’t understand how organized labor works” — called out the “irrelevant virtue-signaling” regarding the topic, which he referred to as “boring and idiotic.”
“Mayim is doing what she’s doing in performative solidarity with the writer’s strike and Ken is stepping in to keep the show running in accordance with his contract as a SAG-AFTRA game show host,” he said, before urging haters to “do a tiny modicum of independent research on the topic before you post.”
The podcaster also advised people against “stirring up shit on social media” when they are “ignorant of the facts.” Moreover, he warned users not to assume other people “stirring up shit on social media are any more knowledgeable than you even if, especially if, those people are actors.”
He added, “Sit down and be quiet most of the time and if you must post, have it be something funny about cats or maybe about vintage airplanes.”
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