by WRIGLEY ZBYSZEWSKI and MATTHEW ROSENBAUM
Good news: Original TV programming is on its way back!
On Monday, the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached an agreement that officially brought an end to the 146-day writers’ strike. On Tuesday, committees on the WGA voted to confirm the deal.
“We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional–with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the WGA said in an official statement to its members.
More details revealed that the WGA won higher residual payments for writers and protective language that severely restricts the usage of AI in the writers’ room.
For TV audiences, the new agreement means that variety shows such as The Late Night Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert are set to return this Monday.
On May 2, the WGA announced it was going on strike due to conflicts that arose during contract negotiations with AMPTP.
In July, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union that represents American actors, joined them for the same reason.
Since the strike began for actors, members of both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA could be seen often picketing side-by-side in front of production studios.
Without the ability to produce or review screenplays, much less realize them into actual pieces of media, the production of new television programs and movies was ground to a halt.
Regardless, the AMPTP remained adamant about not negotiating until the writers changed their demands.
“There’s a level of expectation that they [the WGA] have that is just not realistic, and they are adding to a set of challenges that this business is already facing that is quite frankly very disruptive and dangerous,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger.
The most widely publicized causes of the writers’ strike were insufficient streaming royalties compared to cable television, and the potential for artificial intelligence to partially or fully replace writers.
While cable television writers take cuts of money from advertisements, shows that air on streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu only receive profits from subscriptions, a significantly smaller source of income.
Furthermore, as AI becomes a contemporary resource, some studios view AI software as more affordable than human writers.
These debates with the AMPTP had kept writers on the picket line for more than four months … until now.
While the end of the writers’ strike offers hope for the still-striking actors, the final contract’s timing is uncertain as a result of the more recent start-and-stalled negotiations of the actors’ strike.
While the resolution to the writers’ strike, based upon the WGA’s initial statements, seems to include many studio-side concessions to the initial demands, the deal to resolve the actors’ strike may not be so lucrative.
It remains highly likely, however, that SAG-AFTRA will be able to leverage the momentum from the writers’ strike’s resolution to gain an advantage in the negotiations, and achieve many, if not all, of their stated goals.
While mainstream Hollywood remains dormant, it is slowly reviving itself by resolving the writers’ strike, making progress in the actors’ strike negotiations, and resuming the production of many talk shows and similar actor-free programming.
A full resumption of production is ideal for consumers, studios, writers and actors, so as the SAG-AFTRA members remain on the strikelines, they can only hope that the AMPTP’s progress with the WGA foreshadows potential success in their own negotiations later this year.
For the actors, ending their strike and reaching an agreement this fall would be the best-case scenario, but it is entirely possible that finalized agreements may not be reached until December or even early in 2024.
The Mainsheet 