Late Night Shows Shutting Down as Writers Strike Begins

The Writers Guild of America began a strike overnight after the union was unable to reach a new contract with the labor group representing the major Hollywood studios. Television fans will feel the effects immediately, as there will be no new episodes of ABC, NBC, and CBS’ late-night talk shows. Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and Stephen Colbert’s shows will switch to reruns starting Tuesday night. All four shows rely on guild members for sketches and monologues.

This is the first writers’ strike in Hollywood in 15 years. The WGA, which represents 11,500 television and film writers, did not reach a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, by their 11:59 p.m. PT May 1 deadline. The strike started Tuesday morning, and picketing will begin this afternoon, reports The Los Angeles Times.

The strike will hit talk shows first. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Late Night with Seth Meyers will pause production during the strike. HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver are also shutting down. Kimmel, Fallon, Colbert, and Meyers have all voiced solidarity with the writers.

Meyers, who began his career in Hollywood as a writer on Saturday Night Live, explained to his audience Monday night how important writers are. “Look, no one is entitled to a job in show business. But for those people who have a job in show business, they are entitled to fair compensation. They are entitled to make a living,” Meyers said. “I think it’s a very reasonable demand that is being set out by the guild and I support those demands. But I also believe that everybody at the table right now, be it from the writer side or the studio side, knows that the future of this business is dependent on storytellers.”

“I support my writers,” Fallon told NBC News on the Met Gala red carpet Monday night. “We have a lot of staff and crew that will be affected by this but, you know, they got to get a fair deal.”

There is also a chance that this weekend’s Saturday Night Live episode hosted by former cast member Pete Davidson is shut down. Sources told the LA Times that NBC still hasn’t made a decision on that. There are still three more SNL episodes planned for this month, including Davidson’s.

If the strike lasts much longer, soap operas could be the next affected, depending on how many scripts they had built up before Monday. Shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Abbott Elementary, 9-1-1, and Ghosts will not be immediately impacted because their current seasons have already been completed and filmed. However, the production of the next season usually starts in May and June, so if a strike continues, that could delay the start of the 2023-2024 TV season.

Writers are much more involved in shows than just filing scripts. Showrunners who want to be involved in every level of production will not be onset during the strike. They also won’t be able to work on editing and be present during post-production, per the WGA’s list of strike rules. The guild published a strict list of rules, including barring writers from discussing work with studios. Directors and producers who are also writing have been limited in the work they can do on scripts.

“The WGA Negotiating Committee began this process intent on making a fair deal, but the studios’ responses have been wholly insufficient given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the WGA said in a statement after talks ended. “The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing. From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television, to the creation of a “day rate” in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.”