How a Writers’ Strike Could Affect Everything You Watch

If the Film and Television Producers Alliance and the Writers Guild of America fail to agree on a new contract tonight at 11:59 pm ET, the strike will halt production of many films and television shows in Hollywood. The longer the (so far hypothetical) strike goes on, the less shooting there will be.

The effect for some TV viewers will be immediately visible – you’re SOL if you like topical late-night talk shows and sketch comedies – and if it drags on for as long as the previous hits, just about anyone who likes scripted entertainment will notice the change, although it may be thinner than in previous strokes.

How will the writers’ strike affect viewers in the short term?

TV shows with a fast turnaround – your Jimmy Kimmels, Stephen Colberts and Jimmy Fallons – will most likely go out of production the moment the strike starts. These shows rely heavily on their writers and can’t be prepared ahead of time – they don’t work if there’s no one to write jokes about Ron DeSantis. If the strike happens, the Tuesday night talk show line-up is likely to be repeated. During the latest strike, mainstream late-night talk shows eventually began airing episodes without writers, but whether or not that will happen this time around is anyone’s guess.

News shows, including entertainment news shows, reality shows, sports, and interview-based talk shows, are not covered by the WGA agreement and will not be affected by the strike.

There are three shows scheduled for May on Saturday Night Live , and none of them will be taken down if the strike goes on for a shorter time, so fans of late-night comedy sketches will also be watching reruns. If the strike drags on, there won’t be a season finale, so the departing cast members won’t be able to say goodbye.

Believe it or not, there are still three soap operas in production. The Bold and the Beautiful , General Hospital , and The Young and the Restless are not as instantaneous as late-night talk shows. Soap operas are usually filmed weeks before they air, so soap opera fans won’t see strike-related disruption in their “stories” (as my grandmother called them) for a month or so. But after that, networks will most likely air either reruns or filler shows.

How the writers’ strike will affect viewers in the long run

Let’s hope a satisfactory 11 o’clock agreement is reached by midnight, but if that doesn’t happen and the strike lasts longer than a few days, the media landscape will gradually change after the late night. The first failures will be in network shows, then in streaming, and finally in movies.

This season’s network TV shows are pretty much out of production, so the season finales of Law & Order and the like probably won’t be affected, but if the strike goes on for 100 days, like the 2007-2008 strike, the fall TV season starts. is likely to be delayed. Several productions have reportedly postponed several episodes into the fall in preparation for the strike, but most shows have not done so, leaving networks scrambling to find non-WGA programming to fill their airplay. Last time, some programs that were already on the block were completely cancelled. In 2007-2008, the networks added to their mainstream reality TV schedules (where the writers are called “producers” and are not unionized), so I hope you enjoy The Bachelor.

Streaming shows tend to run longer than network TV shows, so it can be months before the effect is noticeable on Netflix and Prime. Some streaming shows may be scripted but not yet filmed. The fate of these shows is up in the air as the reaction of other show business unions could play a big role in the continuation of production. More on this below.

Big-budget films will be the last to see the aftermath of the strike. Films scheduled for this summer are expected to be released as planned, but the schedule for films scheduled for 2024 and 2025 is under development. Some of them may be delayed or canceled, and some may be released as scheduled, but they will be different films than if there was no strike.

Films are usually rewritten as they are produced, and the strike means that this can’t happen. Producers who chose not to delay filming ended up filming their script exactly as it was written, or with changes coming only from the actors. During the most recent strike in 2007–2008, a number of films, including X-Men Origins: Wolverine , 2009’s Star Trek , and Quantum of Solace, were affected by scripts that were “set in stone”. No one can say how much the lack of rewriting affected the quality of the final product, but I’m sure it made things more difficult on set.

The showrunners of the scripted show are a wildcard. They have a hybrid role and can rewrite their shows while wearing their “producer” hat, but most of them are expected to respect their positions as members of the WGA and stop production.

Other entertainment unions are more of a clue than showrunners. SAG-AFTRA has already advised its members to continue working in the event of a strike. The IATSE has so far not sided with either side, although the union has advised its members that they have the legal right to refuse to cross the writers’ picket line if they wish. If they decide to keep the picket line, it’s likely that most of the production will stop – if the carters don’t work, no one works.

How is this strike different from previous writers’ strikes?

It’s been 15 years since the last writers’ strike, and since then the entertainment industry has shifted heavily towards streaming. This has made viewers generally less dependent on freshly prepared content – we can finally watch The Sopranos and everything will be fine. While being able to watch whatever you want weakens the WGA somewhat, on the other hand, public opinion has shifted towards unions in a broader sense over the same time period, so hopefully viewers will support the writers on strike.

For their part, the manufacturers appear to be more prepared for this strike than for previous shutdowns. Perhaps learning from the COVID shutdown, many producers reportedly “saved” content months before the strike deadline to reduce the impact on their bottom line if writers didn’t show up for work.

What is the strike about?

While the explosion of streaming content over the past decade has created more jobs for writers, those jobs tend to pay less than more traditional writing gigs. According to the WGA, half of show writers work for minimum wage, up from a third in the 2013-14 season. Ultimately, writers are looking for higher salaries and larger residual payments from streaming.

Another major point of contention between producers and writers is artificial intelligence. Writers want to make sure that AI scripts are not created based on their previous work and would like to be asked to rewrite scripts created by AI.

To get a glimpse of our dystopian entertainment future in the event the WGA strike fails, I asked ChatGTP to write a joke for an evening TV program, and he came up with the following:

Have you heard about a new restaurant called Karma? There is no menu – you get what you deserve. So if you were a good person, you can get delicious food. But if you’ve been a jerk, you’ll probably end up with coleslaw.

Resting.