Writers Strike Officially Ends

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The Writers Guild’s strike is set to officially end, as the WGA Negotiating Committee voted to recommend the previously announced “tentative agreement” to its members to be ratified. Whilst that final vote will take a couple of weeks to organise, writers will be allowed to head back to work in the interim period.

It has been a long and difficult five months of strike action by the WGA (Writers Guild Of America) to get the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) to come around, but the Negotiating Committee has done a stunning job, landing a new deal which will last until May 2026. The new contract covers everything the WGA had been requesting including better protections against AI, improvements on streaming residual pay, better staffing for writer’s rooms, along with improvements to minimum salaries, pensions, and healthcare.

Whilst this deal could, technically, still be rejected by the WGA membership, that seems extremely unlikely at this point, given the AMPTP relented in pretty much every area of concern, and has been hailed by the WGA leadership as an “exceptional” offer. On the remote, outside chance it is rejected, the strike would begin again, however, I don’t think anyone is expecting that to happen, meaning the strike is effectively over.

This move means a number of shows can get back to filming as soon as tomorrow. The first shows to reemerge will be the late-night talk shows, such as ‘Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’, ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’, ‘The Tonight Show’, and ‘Real Time With Bill Maher’. However, the one issue some of those shows may have is guests… Whilst the writers are back to work, SAG-AFTRA, the actor’s union, is still on strike, and its members are still blocked from promoting any past, present, or future projects, meaning chat show appearances are still problematic. It also means they still can’t go back to filming scripted comedy or drama.

The good news is that the WGA deal should speed up negotiations with SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP, as a number of the issues, such as streaming residuals, were similar to both groups. Also, with the writers now back, the AMPTP will be keen to get the actors back in the studio as soon as possible to allow filming to begin again on scripted series, in the hopes of being able to salvage something for this broadcast season. Whilst network drama (i.e. NCIS’s, Chicago’s, The Rookie etc…) won’t be returning in their usual Autumn timeslots this year, if SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP can come to a deal in the next few weeks, it’s possible they could produce half-seasons of those shows, to be broadcast early in 2024.

Should also be noted that, whilst it’s looking hopeful that the TV strikes are coming to an end, SAG-AFTRA has opened up a new battlefront against the gaming industry. Yesterday, the SAG-AFTRA membership voted overwhelmingly to allow strike action over the Interactive Media Agreement which covers actors who work in video games. Negotiations with the gaming companies, which include the likes of Activision, EA, Insomniac, Epic, Warner Bros and more, have been ongoing for around 12 months already, but have hit an impasse, which resulted in SAG-AFTRA calling for strike authorisation. This doesn’t necessarily mean the union will automatically take strike action, but it does show that they mean business, and helps ratchet up the pressure on the gaming companies to come to a deal. Many of the issues they are fighting for within the gaming industry are similar to those on the TV side, including AI exploitation protections, wages, and basic safety precautions.

Overall though, the news today is good. The WGA held strong and got what they were asking for… It’s just a shame any of this had to happen in the first place, and that it took so long to resolve. Hopefully, a resolution to the SAG-AFTRA strike is not far behind.