Hollywood’s writers are going out on strike for the first time in more than 15 years.
The Writers Guild of America announced on Monday night that its 11,500 members will stop working on Tuesday afternoon, after negotiations between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a group representing most major studios and streaming services, broke down.
The WGA’s board of directors “voted unanimously to call a strike, effective 12:01 AM, Tuesday, May 2”, the WGA West tweeted on Monday night.
This decision could have a huge impact on the television and possibly films you will be able to watch in the future. Here’s what you need to know.
Though our Negotiating Committee began this process intent on making a fair deal, the studios’ responses have been wholly insufficient given the existential crisis writers are facing.
— Writers Guild of America West (@WGAWest) May 2, 2023
Why are writers striking?
Residuals are like royalty payments for screenwriters; they earn these from both regular broadcasts and streaming, but they currently earn a lot more from the former – which, as streaming continues to proliferate and dominate, is causing a lot of disquiet in the industry.
It is complicated, but essentially if an episode of a TV show is broadcast on both regular TV and a streaming service, most companies pay less in residuals for the latter. Writers for streamed shows are paid a set amount of money regardless of whether the show is a hit. But broadcast television uses a “reward-for-success” model that means if a show is a hit, writers can earn more in residuals.
The WGA has argued that because success is not factored into streaming residuals, seasoned writers are not being recognised with the wages they deserve and wages are stagnating.
At the same time, studios and streamers have been trying to cut spending on labour. Streaming services have been merging and dropping old shows entirely from their catalogues, meaning writers can’t earn anything from those shows. They are also ordering shorter seasons, which is affecting what writers can earn.
Another important trend has been the rise of the “mini room”: a condensed version of a writers’ room that takes place before a show is given the green light. These have essentially replaced the pilot episode, which studios used to use to gauge a show’s potential. Studios like mini rooms, as it gives them a better sense of what a show might be before committing, but writers earn less for their work at that stage of production – in effect meaning they work longer for less on shows that may never be made.
The WGA is also campaigning for a higher salary floor and for regulation on the use of artificial intelligence in scriptwriting, asking the AMPTP for a guarantee that it won’t be “used as source material”.
“It really is the perfect storm,” one anonymous insider told Variety. “The writers’ concerns are completely and objectively valid, which has the studios and producers a bit more rattled than they’d like to admit. Someone has to budge, but Wall Street is unrelenting in its expectations for studios.”
Every three years, the WGA negotiates a contract under which all of its members are employed with the AMPTP, which represents more than 350 film and television companies. It includes film studios Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros; US networks ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC; streaming services Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime; and some other cable and independent companies.
The current contract was set to end on 1 May; in mid-April, a decisive 97.85% of WGA members voted in favour of a strike if their terms were not met.
The negotiations began on 20 March; now they have ended with no deal, causing the WGA’s first strike since the infamous writers’ strike of late 2007 and early 2008.
What will the strike involve?
The WGA-issued rules for members taking part in this strike involve: no writing, revising, pitching or negotiating with the more than 350 television and film companies in the AMPTP.
The WGA is strict about strikes: its members – who make up a huge proportion of the industry – have been told they must picket at assigned locations unless they have a “valid medical excuse,” personal issue or emergency.
When writers strike, it affects everyone working in film and TV production, including electricians, caterers and background actors, who all have to find other work.
How might it play out?
The WGA’s last strike in 2007-2008 lasted 100 days, with writers fighting over better residuals from DVD sales, union protection for animation and reality program writers, and compensation for what was then called “new media”: scripts written for films and shows broadcast online.
the children don’t remember how bad TV got during the 2007 writers strike
— ashley “big shoes” ray (@theashleyray) May 1, 2023
It had an immediate and now-infamous impact on US television and film across the board. Within a week, companies were firing most assistants and junior staffers working on shut-down programs. Late night hosts Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert soon returned to air but without any writers; Leno and O’Brien paid their non-writing out of their own pockets.
Popular shows in production at the time, including the Simpsons, the Office, 30 Rock, Mad Men, Gossip Girl, Breaking Bad and Lost, were affected by the strike; many ended up with a much shorter than normal season, which had a huge impact on storytelling. Some shows arguably benefited from the break, like Friday Night Lights.
Other shows postponed production entirely; it has been estimated that the California economy lost an estimated $2.1bn over the four-month strike.
How will this affect what I watch?
Any strike will have an immediate impact on the US’s late-night talkshows, which are mostly staffed by WGA members who have to write up-to-the minute commentary and jokes; expect to see a few of these shows become very free-wheeling or start airing re-runs.
Next to be disrupted will probably be soap operas, which are traditionally written not long before they are filmed.
The latest seasons of big comedies and dramas currently airing will remain uninterrupted as their episodes are all likely written and filmed already. But if this strike continues for more than a couple weeks, the WGA has warned that it will impact network television season, which encompasses 45% of episodes made by companies like Disney, Paramount and Comcast NBCUniversal, as writers usually begin to work around now on the big series that usually premiere in the US fall.
The flow of films to cinemas will not stop because studios have a pipeline of films already written and shot years ago. It would take a very long strike to interrupt film schedules – but given both sides show no sign of backing down, it could happen.
What happens if actors and directors strike as well?
The actors’ guild SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guilde of America contracts expire on 30 June – if they also go on strike, production on scripted shows would end completely.