Today marks a new chapter in the Writers Guild of America strike as the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are set to resume negotiations.
If negotiations are successful, television writers would finally be able to get back to work and salvage their daytime and prime time series before they run out of new episodes. Several shows, such as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” have been in repeats and have suffered ad revenue losses since the strike began. While it would take some time, new episodes of such late nights would air as soon as their writers were able to put together enough material.
Also, nonwriting staff members of television shows, such as stagehands and make-up and hair staff, would be able to return to work before losing their jobs that they could otherwise lose as soon as Nov. 30.
With the strike going into its fourth week, many in the entertainment industry are hoping this will also mark the final chapter of this coast-to-coast saga.
Twelve-thousand film and television writers in both Los Angeles and New York City have been picketing outside some of Hollywood’s biggest studios and networks in hopes of receiving larger compensation for internet viewings and DVD sales. Currently, writers receive four cents per DVD sale and no residuals from iTunes sales or advertising-supported free rebroadcasts on Web sites such as abc.com.
It seems that now that production on television shows has shut down due to the strike, both writers and producers are leaning closer to ending the strike rather than letting it play out for months as many within Hollywood had predicted earlier.
“I suspect that there is enough pressure on both sides. We’ve pounded the table; let’s get serious here, and the producers alliance will end up giving the writers something. It won’t be as much as writers wanted … they’ll end up compromising,” said UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Producers Program Professor Emeritus Howard Suber.
Richard Walter, professor of screenwriting and lifetime WGA member, still remains hopeful, but also realistic, on the prospect of a settlement, especially after the talks for striking Broadway stagehands failed two weeks ago.
With late-night talk fests such as “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” already in reruns and both daytime soaps and prime time series coming closer to reaching the same fate, ending the strike now would be beneficial to both sides.
Even though increased DVD residuals may seem like the bigger money maker, Walter said the main thing keeping the WGA and the Alliance at odds is the future of Internet streaming. Writers have never before been compensated when their material airs for free on the Internet, since these shows are technically free, but because the airings generate advertising revenue, it seems there is still a profit to be had.
These resumed negotiations, first announced Nov. 16, signify to many of the WGA’s strength in the first weeks of the strike, especially with television show runners, which are people who serve as both writers and producers, such as “Desperate Housewives'” Marc Cherry.
“One of the things that I assume is driving the return to the negotiating table is the show runners (and) the vote the show runners took to not provide any services (during the strike). Show runners were told by the studios, “˜All right, you can’t write, but you can produce,’ and the position they chose to take was as a united front. Some wanted to do their producing duties, but they went along with the united front,” said Suber.
While in many ways this strike has played out much like the last WGA strike in 1988, the unity of the writers and the show runners this time around is a noticeable and beneficial difference.
“Way back then there was more dissent within the guild, particularly involving the show runners. This year, very much to their credit, despite financial risk, show runners have been very pro-guild. Production has been affected much more directly and quickly than anticipated by management,” Walter said. “I’ve never seen anything like this in all my years ““ and I’ve been through seven or eight strikes.”
For show runners who have not returned to work during the strike, there have been recent grumblings within the industry on possible legal action for breach of contract. Suber said he believes this is a small possibility.
“There is a shortage of qualified show runners. It’s a last-ditch resort for studios or networks to fire the show runners,” said Suber. “They may try and make an example of a few people.”