What to Know About the Hollywood Writers Strike
I'll explain it like you're 5
The Writers Guild of America (WGA), which encompasses the East and West American labor unions that represent writers in film, television, radio, and online media, called for a strike on May 2 after six weeks of negotiating for fair pay. The WGA West tweeted that both the West’s Board of Directors and the East’s Council voted unanimously to call a strike on Tuesday, May 2. Later in the thread, the union explained that its Negotiating Committee has been attempting to reach an agreement with The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which negotiates on the behalf of production companies like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Brothers, Universal, Paramount Plus, and Sony to increase writers’ wages when working on streaming programs.
Eliza Skinner, a writer, actor and producer who has written for multiple late night and award shows, explained in a Tweet, “…do you detect a difference b/t the shows you stream…and the ones you watch through a cable box? Bc we do the same work for both, but we take a HUGE paycut for streaming shows.” The reason for this is largely because writers used to rely heavily on residual checks, and streaming platforms have eradicated this stream of income
Rumors of a strike were already looming during Monday’s Met Gala, and several celebrities are siding with the writers, including Amanda Seyfried, who told Variety, “I don’t get what the problem is. Everything changed with streaming, and everyone should be compensated for their work. It’s f*cking easy.” Other celebs who are writers themselves, like Mindy Kaling and Quinta Brunson also showed their support.
In addition to negotiating equal wages for streaming content, the WGA is also asking to restrict the use of AI in writer’s rooms. The WGA requested for stricter AI regulations, asking to forbid the use of artificial intelligence to write or rewrite content. The studios responded by rejecting the proposal, counter offering annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology.
C. Robert Cargill, a screenwriter who has worked on horror films like “Sinister” and thrillers like “The Black Phone” explained this in a Tweet, “The immediate fear of AI ins’t that us writers will have our work replaced by artificially generated content. It’s that we will be underpaid to rewrite that trash into something we could have done better from the start. This is what the WGA is opposing and the studios want.”
Other celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Edie Falco and Mark Hamill also spoke out in favor of the WGA, voicing their support for writers. Some even joined the picketers on the front lines, including Rob Lowe and Jay Leno, who brought donuts.
The strike could affect the future of several shows. The late night talk shows Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Late Night With Seth Meyers have already halted production while SNL closed out its season early, cancelling Pete Davidson’s highly anticipated return to the show as a host.
Brittani Nichols, a writer on the hit series Abbott Elementary told Democracy Now!, “We are a show that writes while we air. If this strike goes on for a significant period of time, our show will not come out on time and that could change the amount of episodes which I’m sure people will be very upset about.” Big Mouth, Yellowjackets and Cobra Kai will also have their schedules disrupted by the strike.
This strike ends 15 years of peace between the labor unions and Hollywood studios. If you feel like you’re having dejá vu, that may be because this impasse is extremely reminiscent of the 2007/08 WGA strike over royalties from DVD sales. That strike lasted a long 100 days, causing major hits like Breaking Bad, 30 Rock, Desperate Housewives, Family Guy, Friday Night Lights and Grey’s Anatomy to end their seasons early, effectively altering the show’s trajectory permanently. This strike was also a catalyst for a strong pivot toward unscripted reality TV like Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Considering we’ve been here before, we can only hope that the AMPTP takes less than three months to do the right thing. In the words of Amanda Seyfried, “It’s f*cking easy.”