Thousands of Hollywood TV and movie screenwriters will strike on Tuesday, after last minute talks with major studios over wages broke down.
A Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, the first in 15 years, will see more than 9,000 writers – 98% of voting members – walk out from midnight.
Late-night live chat shows are expected shut down first, while forthcoming shows and films could face delays.
Picketing will begin on Tuesday afternoon, the Guild also said.
In 2007, writers went on strike for 100 days, at a cost of around $2bn to the industry.
This time around, writers are clashing with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) – which represents the major studios, including Disney and Netflix – in demand of higher pay and a greater share of the profits from the modern streaming boom.
On Monday evening, the WGA said the decision was made after six weeks of negotiations produced a “wholly insufficient” response to “the existential crisis writers are facing”.
Key issues in the talks have been how writers get paid for shows which often remain on streaming platforms for years, as well as the future impact of artificial intelligence on writing.
‘Sticking points’
The WGA criticised studios for creating a “gig economy” that aims to turn writing into an “entirely freelance” profession. “For the sake of our present and our future, we have been given no other choice,’ the guild stated in a lengthy document.
It called for a TV staffing minimum, ranging from six to 12 writers per show, as well as a guaranteed minimum number of weeks of employment per season.
In their own statement on Tuesday, the AMPTP called those the two “primary sticking points”.
For their part, the collective studios previously said they must cut costs due to financial pressures, while noting how the overall “residuals” payments to writers hit an all-time high of $494m (£395m) in 2021.
They noted on Monday they had been been willing to increase compensation and streaming residuals but for “the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the Guild continues to insist upon.”
The AMPTP also rejected a guild demand that the use of AI bots be banned from writing or rewriting material, instead offering to hold “annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology”.
On Sunday evening, the Deadline Hollywood outlet reported that production on late-night shows including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (pictured above) will all come to a halt.
Arriving at Monday night’s Met Gala, Fallon said he hoped the strike would not go ahead, but at the same time wanted to see “a fair deal” agreed for writers. “I need my writers real bad, I got no show without my writers”.
Late Night host Seth Meyers expressed his support for the strike on the corrections segment of his show on Friday.
“I also feel very strongly that what the writers are asking for is not unreasonable,” Meyers said. “As a proud member of the Guild, I’m very grateful that there is an organisation that looks out for the best interests of writers.”
Alex O’Keefe, writer on the comedy-drama series The Bear and a member of that union, told the BBC on Monday that half of all writers were paid the minimum by studios.
He said the creative output of his writing colleagues was better than ever, matching the demands of the streaming age, but writers are paid less than ever.
“And writers like me, especially young, black writers, indigenous writers, writers of colour have brought a whole new wave of creativity to the process.
“But we are finding ourselves unable to survive in places like New York City and Los Angeles, where we need to be to be in writers’ rooms.”
‘Underclass in Hollywood’
O’Keefe went on to stress that while there are some writers who are “doing very well”, many writers, including some showrunners on big shows, were not.
“I wouldn’t classify all writers as being poor or broke, but I can say myself I have $6 in my bank account,” he said.
He said that when he and his colleagues won best comedy series at the Writers Guild of America Awards, he went to the ceremony in a suit bought for him by his friends and family.
“The bowtie was bought on credit, I didn’t have any money, I had a negative bank account,” he explained.
When he worked on The Bear, he did so from his “tiny” Brooklyn apartment.
“My heat was out, I had a space heater, I plugged in the space heater, [and] sometimes all the lights would go out. I’d end up in the public library, writing this show that has now become a huge hit and made lots of money for some people… a couple of people.
“But not for the people who were the creators, who really poured their hearts and their souls into the characters and into the stories and the moments that you remember.
“So there is a huge underclass right now in Hollywood.”
The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA and the directors’ union DGA have voiced solidarity with striking writers.
