For the first time in 15 years, television and movie writers are launching a strike.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) authorized the strike on Tuesday, sending its nearly 12,000 unionized screenwriters to the picket line for the first time since 2008, a strike that lasted about 100 days.
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The strike means that all script writing is to immediately cease, the guild told its members. The guild is seeking higher minimum pay, less thinly staffed writing rooms, shorter exclusive contracts and a reworking of residual pay — all conditions the WGA says have been diminished in the content boom driven by streaming.
“The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing,” the WGA said in a statement. “The survival of our profession is at stake.”
Negotiations between studios and writers had been ongoing since March, but no new deal was reached before the current contract expired on Tuesday. The writers last month voted overwhelming to authorize a strike, with 98% of membership in support.
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So what does this mean for your favorite shows and movies?
Well, like noted above, all script writing is immediately stopping. That means any writing work that was happening on movies being developed, re-writes, TV shows and streaming shows -- all of it stops.
This will likely delay production and eventual release of new movies, shows or new seasons of existing shows.
The most immediate impact will be shows that depend on writers daily or weekly, like the late-night talk show circuit.
On Friday’s episode of “Late Night,” Seth Meyers, a WGA member who said he supported the union’s demands, prepared viewers for re-runs while lamenting the hardship a strike entails.
“It doesn’t just affect the writers, it affects all the incredible non-writing staff on these shows,” Meyers said. “And it would really be a miserable thing for people to have to go through, especially considering we’re on the heels of that awful pandemic that affected, not just show business, but all of us.”
Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel have both said their shows will be in re-runs for the foreseeable future in support of the strike.
Saturday Night Live is expected to immediately go dark.
During the 2007 strike, late-night hosts eventually returned to the air and improvised material. Jay Leno wrote his own monologues, a move that angered union leadership.
Scripted series and films will take longer to be affected. But if a strike persisted through the summer, fall schedules could be upended.