The Writer’s Guild of America has begun their strike and TV programs are already seeing some repercussions. Now, late-night television shows are set to go dark immediately.
The Writer’s Guild of America announced that they have set Tuesday, May 2nd, as the first day of their strike if their requests aren’t met. The WGA made the call early Tuesday morning that the strike has begun. Now, late-night shows feel the first blows as they are daily shows as opposed to scripted series that are filmed in advance.
Shows that are no longer airing during this time include The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Shows that air weekly instead of daily like Saturday Night Live, Real Time with Bill Maher and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver will be impacted as well. The two HBO shows have announced that they will be shutting down. SNL‘s decision is expected to come later in the week.
Support For The Strike
Kimmel and Colbert, are relieving the writer’s strike they witnessed about 15 years ago. Oliver was on The Daily Show and Meyers was at Saturday Night Live during the last strike. According to Deadline, when asked about the strike this year, Meyers makes his stance very clear. “No one is entitled to a job in show business,” he said. “But for those people who have a job, they are entitled to fair compensation. They are entitled to make a living. I think it’s a very reasonable demand that’s being set out by the guild. And I support those demands.”
One main issue that the Writer’s Guild has with Hollywood studios centers late-night shows on streaming. Currently, writers who work on “comedy variety programs made for new media,” do not qualify for MBA minimums. This is an issue the WGA has been fighting for.
In contrast to the last writer’s strike, late-night showrunners plan to have a united front on the issue. One showrunner says that its important for writers to get paid but there has to be a middle ground. “We’ve got to support the writers — our writers are amazing. That said, the rest of the staff is amazing, and I don’t want to see anybody lose their jobs or lose a paycheck. What’s the happy medium there? Figuring that out, it’s not been easy.”