Hollywood in Disarray as Writers’ Strike Throws TV Industry into Chaos

Striking film and television writers are set to meet with union leadership on Wednesday, the second day of a work stoppage that has thrown Hollywood into disarray as the industry deals with the changes brought by the streaming TV boom.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live” and other late-night shows aired again Tuesday night after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike, leaving them without teams to make topical jokes based on the day’s news. Went. Production was also halted in Los Angeles for the remainder of the week.

Hundreds of WGA members went back to the offices of The Walt Disney Company, Netflix Inc. and other studios in New York and Los Angeles, where they marched and demanded higher wages and safeguards around the use of artificial intelligence.

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Oscar-winning directors and writers of “Everything Everywhere at Once,” joined dozens of people walking picket lines in front of Netflix’s headquarters in Hollywood.

“What we’re asking for is really reasonable,” said Schenert, a WGA member. “So it’s exciting to get out here and show that support and try to hurry up the process.”

Outside the Fox studios across town, “Family Guy” writer Rich Appel acknowledged concern among WGA members about being out of work.

“But there’s also something very encouraging about a group effort that you believe in,” he said. “I don’t think anybody who’s striking doesn’t believe it’s worth it.”

The group negotiating on behalf of the studios said it had offered a “generous” increase in compensation but could not agree on the WGA’s other demands in last-minute talks on Monday.

Negotiators for the WGA, which represents about 11,500 writers, were scheduled to meet with members in New York and Los Angeles on Wednesday evening and provide details of the decision to order the strike.

Among other proposals, writers are demanding changes to pay and the formula used to compensate writers when their work is streamed. The WGA estimates that its changes will cost approximately $429 million per year.

The strike hit Hollywood studios in a challenging time. The conglomerates are under pressure from Wall Street to make their streaming services profitable after pumping billions of dollars into programming to attract subscribers.

The rise of streaming has reduced television advertising revenue as traditional TV audiences have shrunk. The last WGA strikes in 2007 and 2008 lasted 100 days. The action cost the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion as productions shut down and out-of-work writers, actors and producers cut back on spending.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios, said it was prepared to increase its compensation offer.

But the group said it objected to the WGA’s demands that “a company would require a show with a certain number of writers for a certain period of time, whether it was necessary or not.”

The authors say changes from the streaming TV boom have made it difficult for many people to earn a living in expensive cities like New York and Los Angeles. According to WGA statistics, half of TV series writers now work at minimum wage levels, compared to one-third in the 2013-14 season. The average salary for writers at the high writer/producer level has fallen 4% over the past decade.

The WGA also wants studios to use artificial intelligence to generate new scripts from writers’ previous work, or ask them to rewrite AI-generated content.

If the strike prolongs, networks will increasingly fill their programming lineups with unscripted reality shows, newsmagazines and reruns. It could also delay the most important season for TV in the fall. Writing for the fall shows typically begins in May or June.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)