Effective May 2, 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) is currently on strike for the first time in fifteen years. Earlier last month, the guild voted to allow a strike should they be unable to reach a deal with producers as of May 1. The guild wanted better pay for the projects they would work on and prohibit the use of unused scripts. They also requested to have a pension and access to a health fund like other portions of Hollywood. The guild had been working without these things for years. And lastly, the most important thing they were asking for was protection of employment. By including the protection in their contracts, it would allow for more stable employment as a writer.
This strike affects every corner of the entertainment industry as every project created has a writer or a team of writers behind it, including your favorite late night shows. Because of the strike, the following late night shows have announced that they are halting production until a deal is reached: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Seth Meyers gave a statement on the afternoon of May 1 saying “I love writing. I love writing for TV. I love that we get to come in with an idea for what we want to do every day and we get to work on it all afternoon and I have the pleasure of coming out here. No one is entitled to a job in show business. 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.”
The strike entails that no new content will be written for anything that is contracted underneath the guild until a satisfactory deal is made. There is no date set to mark the end of the strike. That is entirely dependent on the producers.
