You won’t be forced to watch reruns of your favorite scripted TV shows for now, as Writers in Hollywood reached a tentative agreement with studios and networks preventing a writers’ Strike that could have been devastating to the showbiz industry.
The Writers Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers all agreed on terms for a three-year collective bargaining agreement early Tuesday before the previous deal expired. If no agreement was reached, a strike could have been started by the writers as early as Tuesday. Thankfully, that never happened.
The last writers’ strike in 2007 has cost Hollywood an estimated $2 billion.
Impact of a strike in Hollywood
If the writers’ strike wasn’t averted, the first shows to be affected are the evening’s late-night talk shows such as “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” just to name a few. These shows heavily depend on their writers for monologues and sketches. Reruns of the long-running TV show “Saturday Night Live” could have filled its remaining three episodes for the season.
A writers’ strike would have meant network studios to rely more on reality shows.
The contractual issues
The writers’ demand included the level of studios and networks contribute to their health plan as well as how much they are compensated in an industry that has been affected by the changes in technology and viewing habits.
Writers are now being paid less on a per-episode basis as TV shows have been accustomed to fewer episodes per season. Studios used to broadcast Traditional programs at least 22 episodes per season. Nowadays, it has become six to 13 episodes per season. This practice has been influenced by cable networks and streaming services such as HBO and Netflix.
The agreement
The new three-year agreement means that writers will receive higher compensation and increased contributions to their health plan. Writers will get 2.4 weeks worth of work for each episode.
The union negotiating committee from the WGA said they didn’t get what they wanted or everything they deserve.
However, they did manage to achieve an agreement that meant members would receive $130 million more than initially offered by the studios.
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