Television and film writers went on strike on Tuesday for the first time in 15 years after negotiations with the film studios failed to produce a new contract.
The story suggests the walkout could last weeks or even months, meaning a hiatus in production for everything from favorite late-night shows to streaming series. Here’s how we got here and what could happen next.
Who is involved?
About 11,500 film and television writers who belong to the Writers Guild of America are negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents eight major studios: Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal, Netflix, Paramount and Sony. (CBS News and Paramount+ are owned by Paramount Global.)
WGA members work on film, television, animation and fiction podcasts, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Which shows are affected by the writers’ strike?
It is expected that the evening shows, which are written daily stop production immediately. “The Late Show” on CBS, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC, “The Tonight Show” on NBC, “Late Night” on NBC and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” are expected to repeat beginning Tuesday.
Less clear is how daytime talk shows, which tend to rely more on chatter from hosts and celebrity interviews, could be affected. Production of ABC’s “The View” continued without interruption during the last strike of the 2007-08 season, for example.
Broadcast networks, meanwhile, are unlikely to have an immediate impact, as they operate on longer timeframes than late-night shows.
Some TV show hosts have expressed their support for the striking writers. On “The Late Show” Monday night, host Stephen Colbert voiced his support for the union.
“Everybody, including myself, hopes that both sides will come to an agreement,” he said. “But I also think the writers’ demands are not far-fetched. I’m a union member. I support collective bargaining. This nation owes unions a lot.”
Speaking on “Late Night” Friday, host Seth Meyers, a member of the WGA, also expressed his support for the striking writers, though he said a strike “would be a really miserable thing for people who have to pass”.
Writers “have a right to make a living,” he said. “I think it’s a very reasonable demand that the union is making. And I support those demands.”
Why do writers attract attention?
At the heart of the dispute is the explosion of streaming services and its effects, including the erosion of pay and job security for writers, according to the WGA.
While series budgets have grown, writers are making a smaller share of the money, the guild said. Streaming services employ smaller writing staffs, which the industry calls “mini rooms,” and also tend to have shorter seasons than broadcast shows. This leaves some writers struggling to pull together multiple sources of income in a single season.
On average, showrunners of broadcast series make less than half of what showrunners of broadcast series make, the WGA said. And since writers on streaming shows aren’t getting the bottom-line payments that have allowed broadcast and writers to make a living, such as syndication and international licensing, the WGA is looking to secure a bigger payout for its members.
Since 2018, the inflation-adjusted wage for screenwriters has fallen 14%, according to the union. For writer-producers, pay has dropped by 23%.
What do writers ask for?
The writers’ guild wants total member wage increases of about $429 million a year, according to the WGA, while the AMPTP’s counter would be $86 million a year.
The number of writers working at the union minimum wage has increased from about a third to about half in the past decade. Meanwhile, comedy variety show writers for streaming services have no minimum payment protections and are typically paid less than their broadcast counterparts.
the minimum to pay for WGA members varies based on a writer’s title and the length of the individual’s employment contract, but the minimum for the lowest-paid writer is $4,546 a week, according to Variety.
The studios “have closed the door on their workforce and opened the door to writing as a fully autonomous profession,” WGA leadership said Monday in a statement. This has created a “gig economy within the union workforce,” he added.
The studios respond that they are thinking about the long-term health of the industry. The AMPTP said Monday that the main sticking points in an agreement revolved around the guild’s request for a minimum number of writers per writers room. The group added that its offer “included generous increases in writer compensation as well as improvements in broadcast residuals.”
A key industry dynamic behind the labor dispute: Hollywood is under increasing pressure from Wall Street to turn a profit. After years of lavish spending to expand streaming services, many studios and production companies are cutting back on spending. For example, the Walt Disney Co eliminating 7,000 jobsWarner Bros. Discovery is cutting costs to reduce its debt and Netflix has slowed spending growth.
“Current streaming services are largely unprofitable. Only Netflix is making a profit right now,” Alex Weprin, media and business writer at the Hollywood Reporter, told CBS News. “These big entertainment companies, they really don’t have a good idea of how profitable these services are going to be and how much they can afford to pay writers.”
What does AI have to do with it?
Artificial intelligence is another point of contention in labor talks, with writers in the guild calling for strict limits on the use of AI in scripts. They don’t want AI-generated material to be rewritten, or AI to rewrite human-created scripts, and they want syndicated material to be excluded from AI model training.
The studios have so far rejected those demands, a stance one writer called “insulting.”
“We are fighting for nothing less than the survival of writing as a viable career,” said writer and comedian Adam Conover. he tweeted.
We proposed that AI should not be used to undermine our work; they rejected our proposal and offered an “annual meeting to discuss advances in technology.” Wow, a REUNION?!? Thank you very much always!!
An insulting counter, just dripping with contempt.
— Adam Conover (@adamconover) May 2, 2023
How Much Do Hollywood and TV Writers Get Paid?
Staff writers, the highest-paid roles, typically work an average of 29 weeks on a network show for $131,834 a year, or an average of 20 weeks on a streaming show for $90,920. For a writer and producer, the figure is $6,967 per week, seconds in the trade magazine Variety. For a writer and producer, the number is $6,967 per week.
Advocates for studios and producers say the pay is far from the poor picture writers present publicly. AMPTP leaders say their priority is “the long-term health and stability of the industry” and are dedicated to reaching “a fair and reasonable settlement,” according to the Associated Press.
What can writers do during the strike?
According to the WGA strike rules, writers are not allowed to do any writing or rewriting during the strike. They are prohibited from attending meetings or negotiating with the studios, pitching new projects, signing agreements to option their work, or even attending promotional events for existing projects.
Instead, they are allowed to accept payment for any writing that has already been completed. Writer-producers, writer-actors, and writer-directors are allowed to do the unwritten part of their work during the strike, but are prohibited from writing any writing whatsoever, such as revising dialogue or tweaking stage directions.
When was the last writers strike?
The last time film and television writers left their keyboards was in 2007-08 in a strike that lasted 100 days.
During this labor action, many shows, including “30 Rock,” “CSI” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” shortened their seasons as studios produced more unscripted reality shows. “Big Brother” and “The Amazing Race” increased their output. “The Apprentice,” hosted by Donald Trump, got a new lease on life when a celebrity version of the shelved show was created to help fill the script void.
Among the major concessions writers won at the time were requirements for fledgling streaming shows to hire union writers if their budgets were big enough. It was one of the early harbingers of almost every entertainment labor struggle in the years that followed.
How often have writers gone on strike?
The writers have gone on strike more than any group in Hollywood, according to the AP, with six strikes since 1960. The first strike, in 1960, lasted nearly five months; strikes followed in 1973, 1981 and 1985.
The longest work stoppage of 153 days occurred in 1988.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Month
