It's Day 4 of the Writers Guild of America strike. Pickets are continuing outside movie studios and streamer HQ's across the city, and the strike’s toll is accelerating.
As an act of screenwriter solidarity, Drew Barrymore said she would not host the MTV Movie and TV Awards ceremony due to happen Sunday live from Santa Monica. While the ceremony will proceed without a host, MTV canceled its pre-show red carpet coverage.
That comes at the end of a busy few days of work stoppages. On Monday, writers on the new season 3 of Showtime's Yellowjackets, downed laptops after just one day.
On Tuesday, the writers of ABC’s hit sitcom Abbott Elementary were due to begin their third season. They didn’t. The same day, Cobra Kai showrunner Jon Hurwitz said all writing on his Netflix series had ceased.
Several shows that were already filming stopped production, including Netflix’s Unstable and NBC’s Night Court.
Expect to see more shows join late night talk shows and halt production over the next few weeks as the strike continues.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers statement on Thursday covered these issues:
In a statement released Monday night, the WGA said:
"Over the course of the negotiation, we explained how the companies' business practices have slashed our compensation and residuals and undermined our working conditions. Our chief negotiator, as well as writers on the committee, made clear to the studios’ labor representatives that we are determined to achieve a new contract with fair pay that reflects the value of our contribution to company success and includes protections to ensure that writing survives as a sustainable profession."
The WGA says that most of its nearly 12,000 members are making less than they once did, and that after factoring for inflation, average WGA pay has actually dropped 14% over the last five years.
The union says about half of WGA members are earning scale — the bare minimum wages stipulated by the contract with the AMPTP. Ten years ago, it was only a third.
Executives at studios and streamers maintain that they are still recovering from pandemic losses and have spent billions of dollars creating and buying content for new streaming platforms, some of which are far from profitable.
Other Hollywood unions will likely use any WGA gains as the template for their demands; contracts for the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America both expire at the end of June.
John Horn, who covers arts and entertainment, has been following negotiations closely. Josie Huang talked this week to picketers and local businesses affected by the strike. In addition, our AirTalk team has featured the strike in on-air discussions on LAist 89.3 and LAist coverage.
This is a developing story. We fact check everything and rely only on information from credible sources (think officials involved in negotiations and reporters on the ground). Sometimes, however, we make mistakes and/or initial reports turn out to be wrong. In all cases, we strive to bring you the most accurate information in real time and will update this story as new information becomes available.
