For the first time in 15 years, writers for motion pictures and television pressed forward with a costly industry-wide walkout. After talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents Hollywood studios, fell through, the Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 television writers and screenwriters, announced late Monday that a strike would start early Tuesday, with picketing starting in the afternoon.
For TV viewers, this means that the creators of your favorite programs, such as Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” and ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” are en route to picket lines. The strike’s impact on TV production will be immediate or delayed, depending on how long it lasts.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” and other late-night talk shows on cable networks like “Real Time With Bill Maher” and “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” are among the first to be impacted. To produce timely monologues and skits, everyone relies on the guild authors.
Production on the shows of Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel, and Meyers has already been explicitly agreed to be suspended; as a result, reruns will resume on Tuesday till further notice. There are no reruns planned when Maher and Oliver’s shows end.
On Monday night, Meyers spoke to viewers about the strike and warned them that it might interrupt his program. He defended the writers, assuring the crowd that the show’s outstanding writing was its foundation.
Look, nobody has a right to a job in the entertainment industry. However, those who work in the entertainment industry have a right to just recompense. They have a right to support themselves, he argued. “I believe the guild is making a very reasonable demand, and I support that demand. However, I also think that everyone at the table right now, whether from the writer’s side or the studio’s side, is aware that the success of this industry depends on their decisions.
In order to keep other workers employed during the last strike, several of TV’s late-night hosts returned to work without their writing staffs and sought to carry on with their shows as usual; however, others leaned into the joke. When he was the host of “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” Conan O’Brien would fill airtime by zipping over the studio crowd and twirling his wedding ring on his desk.
NBC has stated that “Saturday Night Live” will continue to air in repeats until further notice. Three episodes of the program were initially slated to air this month, one of which will air this week and include former cast member Pete Davidson as presenter.
If a strike lasts for a long time, soap operas, TV shows, and movie productions may also suffer as the supply of completed screenplays diminishes.
In contrast to the conventional broadcast model of the past, where pilot episodes were commissioned in the spring and new shows were presented in the fall, there is now what seems to be an endless supply of material generated year-round as the emergence of cable and streaming platforms have inundated the scene. The majority of broadcast programs, like ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and CBS’ “Ghosts,” will complete their current seasons because their finale episodes have already been planned and produced. The production of new episodes, which usually takes place over the summer, could be delayed by a protracted strike, delaying their return in the fall. Additionally, the lead times for shows on cable and streaming services tend to be lengthier, making it challenging to gauge any instant impact. Before viewers see any crucial indications of a halt in new TV shows and episodes, there would need to be a protracted strike.
Data from FilmLA, which manages county permitting, shows that shows including “Hacks,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and “Lone Star” have recently been filming in Los Angeles. However, reports claim that “Hacks,” which was in production for Season 3, has already stopped. It is unknown whether “Loot,” “Quantum Leap,” and “Station 19,” among other TV shows, will actually film in Los Angeles despite FilmLA having listed them as having requested licenses only this week. TV shows that are currently being produced outside of Los Angeles are not taken into consideration by the data.
The fourth season of “The Mandalorian” on Disney+ has already had its scripts written, the show’s creator, Jon Favreau, recently revealed to the French news network BFM TV. The second season of HBO’s “House of the Dragon” started filming last month, and sources claim that all of the episode scripts have been written. The fifth season of “Stranger Things” started writing in August of last year, but Netflix declined to comment on whether the scripts were finished.
On both coasts, writers have started conducting protests outside of all the major productions and studios. Guild members are protesting on the East Coast at the offices of Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, and NBCUniversal at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Later this month, when NBC hosts its upfront presentation where it showcases its fall lineup to advertisers, they will also picket in front of Radio City Music Hall. Writers are gathering to the big studios on the West Coast, including the Sony Pictures and Amazon offices in Culver City, as well as the Radford Studio Center, formerly CBS Radford, where CBS still shoots several series.
The WGA was about to stage a walkout, host Stephen Colbert announced on what might be the final new episode of “The Late Show” for some time. “The union could go on strike tomorrow, which means that writers might have to do something totally against their nature—go outside,” Colbert remarked.
The WGA established a picket line that stretched nearly a block along Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, with about 200 members and sympathizers. Felipe Torres Medina, a writer for “The Late Show,” was one of those participants. They protested in front of the location where an advertiser presentation for NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service was scheduled.
Since we now lack late-night writer minimums for streaming, Medina emphasized how crucial it is that we establish them. “Our shows are currently airing on TV networks, but anything can happen at any time.”
Networks frequently brag about the astounding amount of views comedy segments from the shows receive on social media platforms even as traditional late-night TV audiences are declining.
Being a person of color who immigrated to the United States from Colombia, Medina thinks that increasing union benefits is the best way to increase diversity in writers’ rooms. “This is about protecting everyone who looks like me who might be joining the union,” he declared.
A TV writer-producer who was involved in the strike claimed that a writer’s job entails more than just placing words on a paper and asked for anonymity due to the sensitive nature of their work. They described the impact that the strike would have on output.
“Shows that are still in production will not have writers on set, shows that are still in post-production will not have showrunners in the editing room or on the soundstage,” they stated. “There is no doubt that the soundstage and the editing room serve as the last revisions for each television episode. The output’s quality will be significantly impacted by a writers’ strike. Additionally, shows that are midway through their seasons won’t have scripts to shoot, necessitating a halt.
It adheres to the extensive list of guidelines the WGA has provided to its members regarding the types of work they can and cannot do while on strike. Regardless of whether they work from home or an office, prohibited conduct includes editing previously completed work, initiating a new project, or providing work to a struck company. In addition to not being allowed to discuss their projects with studios, writers are required to save a digital duplicate of all unproduced literary works within 24 hours of the strike starting. The work that even writer-producers or writer-directors can undertake as showrunners throughout production and post-production is severely constrained. For instance, they are not permitted to alter stage directions, make minor dialogue changes, or cut time.
While the WGA can’t prevent members from working on strictly production-related projects, it is urging members to abstain as a sign of solidarity. According to the WGA, many showrunners declined to work for striking businesses during the 2007–2008 strike.
An further TV writer-producer who went on the record on the condition of anonymity said that Monday’s production of their program included a trip to the set and a subsequent visit to the writers room. As employees anticipated how the strike would effect their jobs, they declared that it would be “really stressful for everybody.”
