writers strike

“I write with deep concern regarding your failure to end the ongoing strike,” Fiona Ma said in letters dated August 30 to Disney chief executive Bob Iger, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish (pictured), Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

It’s understood that these agreements are specific to these three shows, rather than a blanket agreement between the company and the guild.

IAC mogul Barry Diller thinks that the Hollywood studios need to “reorient” their businesses, and fast, or else face potential “catastrophic” consequences. The former studio executive, speaking to journalist Kara Swisher for her podcast, also expressed pessimism about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and suggested that the legacy Hollywood studios should split with Netflix and their tech counterparts at the AMPTP.

The writers of MTV’s Ridiculousness are coming closer to being unionized. The show’s writing team, which was behind over 230 episodes last year, has been going through the process to unionize over the last few months, hoping to join their scripted peers, who have been on strike since May, in the WGA.

Amid Hollywood’s summer of strikes, the Directors Guild Foundation is pledging $100,000 in financial assistance to the Motion Picture & Television Fund for crew members affected by strike-related production halts. “Our film crews are our work family. We need to help everyone who’s suffering,” said Todd Holland, Directors Guild Foundation film chair.

Trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan have unanimously agreed to a one-calendar-quarter extension of health coverage for certain qualified participants who would otherwise lose coverage on Oct. 1, 2023. The extension accounts for jobs that may have been lost in May and June of this year due to the Writers Guild strike. The WGA has been on strike since May 2, SAG-AFTRA since July 14.

Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver are launching a limited podcast series about their experiences navigating the writers and actors strike. The group, who were some of the first to down tools when the WGA called its strike in early May, are launching Strike Force Five on Spotify. The proceeds from the show, which launches on Aug. 30 and is sponsored by Mint Mobile and Diageo, will go to out-of-work latenight staff from their shows.

Negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the major studios remained in limbo on Monday, after a week of public sparring failed to result in forward movement. The sides have not formally met since Aug. 18, when the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers rejected the WGA’s Aug. 15 counter offer. Four CEOs did meet with a handful of WGA leaders on Aug. 22 to urge them to accept the studios’ counter, which was made on Aug. 11.

The window to produce shortened seasons of popular scripted shows for midseason dwindles as AMPTP and WGA talks turn contentious.

In a memo to members released to the media late Tuesday night, the Writers Guild of America accused Hollywood studios of not negotiating in good faith, and urged members to continue striking after studios released the details of their latest offer to the public.

WGA West released a report raising concerns about the streaming services and studios consolidating power and undercutting writers as its members remain on strike.

Advertisers spent less on broadcast and cable in the 2023-2024 upfront, despite media companies touting overall pricing and volume growth in negotiations.

“We’re ready and waiting for that to happen for us,” NY local chapter president Ezra Knight told The Wrap.

One The Wrap source says there’s “cautious optimism” that a strike-ending deal may be near.

The Writers Guild of America responded Tuesday to the latest proposal from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but any hopes for an easy resolution of the 106-day strike were quickly dispelled. The WGA did bend slightly on a few items, according to sources familiar with the talks. But the union negotiators did not offer the significant concessions that the studio side was looking for in response to its own offer.

Yesterday’s sit-down at the Sherman Oaks office of the Carol Lombardini-led organization concluded with “mixed results,” according to a well-placed Deadline source. No details have yet to emerge as to whether the parties will meet for further talks or if more proposals will be offered.

With TV development and production at a standstill amid strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, Labor Day is taking on additional significance as a threshold for the writers work stoppage to end, in order for the networks to air meaningful seasons of their original live-action scripted series of at least 13 episodes, approaches. Crossing it without a deal or significant progress between AMPTP and WGA by October could delay new 2023-24 series’ launch until fall 2024 and put some sophomore shows — even beyond broadcast — in potential danger.

In its most recent proposal to the Writers Guild of America, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers offered some concession on the top issues leading to a strike, including so-called artificial intelligence, staffing, and data on streaming service viewership.

TV viewers are using a pause in production brought on by the Hollywood strikes to catch up with all the shows they’ve been missing out on.

After their first day of bargaining since the Writers Guild went on strike May 2, the AMPTP and the WGA have recessed their negotiations until next week after the companies made a counterproposal to guild’s proposals. The WGA told its members Friday evening: “Your Negotiating Committee received a counterproposal from the AMPTP today. We will evaluate their offer and, after deliberation, go back to them with the WGA’s response next week.”

With the strikes by writers and actors making original scripted entertainment  content increasingly scarce, a larger share of ad dollars is going to repeat programming, according to Guideline, formerly known as Dreamscape, which bought spending trackers Standard Media Index and SQAD.

As WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes persist and tens of thousands of people withhold labor in pursuit of equitable streaming residuals, fair compensation, proper staffing of writers’ rooms, protections from the use of artificial intelligence, and more, a surprising series is emerging as the show of the summer: Suits.

“We need to enter an era where people of color… are given the same kind of chance to find their voice and find the show’s voice and find that audience,” WGA member Greg Iwinski says.

Large media companies have been reporting stronger-than-expected profits as the twin strikes by Hollywood writers and actors grind on. While the executives who make and distribute films and TV shows all say they’d like their workers to return soon, their businesses are seeing a huge short-term benefit from the work stoppages: No production means no expenses.

There’s no foreseeable end — a negotiating session last week involving Hollywood studios and streamers and the striking workers ended with little progress. Special Writers Guild of America pickets calling attention to the 100th day are being held in New York and Los Angeles.

The striking actors’ union is granting waivers to some projects not affiliated with the major studios, but questions persist about who qualifies and why.

Jeopardy is undergoing a big change for its Season 40 as a result of the writers strike. Michael Davies, who took over as exec producer and showrunner on a permanent basis last year, admitted that a lot of his plans for Season 40 and the post-season episodes have been “derailed” and that the show is now in a “holding pattern.” Essentially, it will bring back previous contestants for Season 40 and will use a combination of questions written by the writers before the strike as well as recycled material.

Meeting for the first time in more than three months, the Writers Guild and the AMPTP on Friday failed to reach an agreement to resume contract negotiations. Their inability to agree on terms for returning to the bargaining table comes after their much anticipated meeting to discuss a possible resumption of talks. “As of now, there is no agreement on these items, because the AMPTP said they needed to consult with their member studios before moving forward,” the union said in a statement late Friday.

Adam Symson: “I think, ultimately, the strike is going to lead to higher costs for streamers. As the streamers end up with higher expense structures, even more than they have today, they will continue to look for new ways to offset that expense, or to monetize their own costs. And I think that will open up additional programming opportunities for linear broadcasters like us.”

Hollywood’s superstars are answering the call from the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, donating $1 million or more each to help their fellow performers during the ongoing actors and writers strikes. The foundation said Wednesday that over the past three weeks it has raised more than $15 million from a growing list of $1 million donors to the Foundation’s Emergency Financial Assistance Program.

On Tuesday night, the Writers Guild of America sent an email to members saying that the head of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major studios, streaming services and production companies in negotiations, requested a meeting on Friday to discuss the resumption of contract talks.

Many thought the halt of scripted programming would lead to a reality boom, but even as fall schedules rely heavily on unscripted, workers still grapple with diminished job opportunities, long hours and a lack of union support: “We get starved out all the time.”