It won’t be a late night with Seth Meyers or Stephen Colbert or either of the Jimmys for a while.
Movie and television writers are moving ahead with a costly industrywide walkout for the first time in 15 years. The Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 television and screenwriters, announced late Monday that a strike would begin early Tuesday, with picketing commencing in the afternoon, after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents Hollywood studios, failed to yield a new deal before the current guild contract expired.
For TV fans, it means that the writers behind your favorite shows like ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” and “Netflix’s “Stranger Things” are headed for the picket lines. And depending on its duration, the move either will have a swift or delayed effect on TV production.
The strike will affect late-night talk shows first, including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” as well as those on cable networks like “Real Time with Bill Maher” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” All rely on guild writers to pump out topical monologues and skits.
Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel and Meyers have already openly agreed to pause production on their shows, and all of their shows will revert to reruns on Tuesday until further notice.
Meyers addressed the strike with viewers on Monday night in his pre-recorded show, saying it would be interrupted if the strike happened. He voiced support for the writers, telling viewers the show was built on strong writing.
“Look, no one is entitled to a job in show business. But for those people who have a job in show business, they are entitled to fair compensation. They are entitled to make a living,” he said. “I think it’s a very reasonable demand that is being set out by the Guild and I support those demands. But I also believe that everybody at the table right now, be it from the writer side or the studio side, knows that the future of this business is dependent on storytellers.”
After going dark for a few weeks during the last strike, some of TV’s late-night hosts returned to work without their writing staffs in order to keep other employees working and attempted to pull off their shows as usual; however, others leaned into the bit. Conan O’Brien, then the host of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” filled air time by spinning his wedding ring on his desk and zip-lining over the studio audience.
Meanwhile, NBC has not made a decision on whether “Saturday Night Live” will proceed with tapings, according to sources. The show has three episodes scheduled this month, including one this week, with former cast member Pete Davidson as host.
If a strike stretches out for a prolonged period, viewers could next see an eventual impact on soap operas, TV series and movie productions, as the reserve of completed scripts runs low.
There’s now a seemingly never-ending supply of content made year-round — in contrast to the traditional broadcast model of the past where pilot episodes were commissioned in the spring and new shows were launched for their fall schedules — as the rise of cable and streaming platforms flooded the landscape. Most broadcast shows, such as ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and CBS’ “Ghosts” will finish their current seasons as their finale episodes have already been written and filmed. But a prolonged strike could hold up work on new episodes, which typically happens over the summer, and delay their return in the fall. And shows on cable and streaming tend to have a longer lead time, making it difficult to assess any immediate impact. It would take a prolonged walkout before any critical signs of a slowdown in new TV shows and episodes is felt by viewers.
While it’s not yet clear which series will be forced to shut down, in recent weeks programs such as “Hacks,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Lone Star” have been shooting in Los Angeles, according to data from FilmLA, which organizes permitting for the county. “Loot”, “Quantum Leap” and “Station 19” were among the TV shows FilmLA listed as requesting permits for filming in Los Angeles just this week, although it is unclear whether they would proceed with filming. The data do not account for TV shows currently in production outside of Los Angeles.
Writers are expected to hold demonstrations outside all the major studios, as well as productions, on both coasts. On the East Coast, guild members will picket at locations that include Netflix’s Manhattan headquarters, Warner Bros. Discovery offices, NBCUniversal’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza, as well as outside Radio City Music Hall, where NBC will host its its upfront presentation, where it boasts its fall slate to advertisers. On the West Coast, writers are planning to convene at the major studios, including the Culver City offices of Amazon and Sony Pictures, as well as CBS Studios in Studio City.
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