A tentative writers strike settlement is great news, but still looming are an ongoing actors strike, industry consolidation, program cuts, and many more challenges.
The sighs of relief and celebration was palpable across much of Hollywood after Sunday night’s announcement of a tentative settlement of the 156-day strike by the Writers Guild of America, but the town remains in turmoil, with many challenges still looming.
In fact, it’s possible many of those who went on strike and, according to initial reports, won significant concessions from the studios may come back to find their jobs are still in danger, or just plain gone.
As it is, actually adopting the tentative deal will require a few more weeks of work before it becomes official. First the governing bodies of the WGA’s East and West units will need to sign off, likely in the next couple of days. Materials outlining the deal particulars (which still haven’t been released) will need to be prepared and distributed to union members for a ratifying vote, a process that will take another two or three weeks.
At some point after ratification, we’ll see a flurry of announcements of projects and deals that were agreed upon during the strike but held back. For instance, Disney Entertainment Group Co-Chairman Dana Walden will finally get to officially welcome back prodigal super-producer pal Ryan Murphy from Netflix NFLX .
And everyone who can will start reassembling the production teams for projects that have been on hold. Everyone, that is, except the actors, who are still on strike, which means that no filming can restart for many affected projects.
The writers return does mean that late-night talk shows and topical comedy news shows such as HBO’s This Week with John Oliver can resume. Who will actually be guests on those shows is another pressing question, however.
With the actors still out, and forbidden from promoting any projects with struck studios, the writers for Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Myers and Steven Colbert may have to do extra duty filling the entire show without benefit of appearances by stars shilling their upcoming shows.
Beyond that, it’s not clear what the situation will be like for employees returning to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon after its star was roasted last month by numerous current and former workers for creating a hostile work environment.
The good news about the WGA deal is that it provides what could be a framework for settling SAG-AFTRA contract concerns such as the use of artificial intelligence and payment of residuals on streaming shows.
