It’s been more than a week since the 11,500 television and film writers that make up the Writers Guild of America have gone on strike. Work on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “Saturday Night Live” has come to a halt. Hit shows like “Stranger Things” and “Abbot Elementary” are no longer making progress on their upcoming seasons.
Thousands of writers have joined picket lines to demand higher compensation, increase the number of writers hired per show, and regulation on how networks and streaming companies can use artificial intelligence.
Jonterri Gadson is a television writer based in Los Angeles who’s worked on shows like “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and “Everybody Still Hates Chris.”
“One of our greatest concerns is mini-rooms. We will work on developing a show for weeks at a time, plan out the entire plotline and make sure it has a solid concept. Then once the show gets greenlit and picked up by a studio, they hire a new set of writers and you don’t see any residuals,” she told 1A.
This is the first writer’s strike in 15 years. The last strike lasted 100 days. Many industry analysts believe this one could last even longer given the number of production companies involved in the negotiating process and their varied demands.
We assemble a panel of writers, academics, and industry experts to discuss the strike and how it could impact the future of film and television.
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