Hollywood Hit as Writers Guild Association Calls Strike

On Monday, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) declared that 11,500 unionized screenwriters will be going on strike and all scriptwriting will immediately cease as talks with studios and streamers on pay and other conditions have ended without a deal. This dispute over fair pay has pitted thousands of Hollywood writers against major studios like Disney and Paramount as well as OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon and Apple, shattering 15 years of labour peace in America’s entertainment business.

Nightly talk shows including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, are set to go dark starting on Tuesday after writers agreed to strike.

Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Daily Show, which had correspondent Dulcé Sloan host this week, also will be hit, while such weekly shows as Saturday Night Live, Real Time with Bill Maher and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver will be similarly impacted, though final decisions on those shows are expected to come later in the week.