LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� A of nearly five months appears about to end as a between unionized screenwriters and the that hire them. Here's a look at the steps to come for writers, and for the actors whose strike continues.
FIRST COMES TWO CRUCIAL VOTES
After five days of marathon that included the CEOs of Hollywood's biggest studios, the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers came to terms Sunday night on a contract good for three years, the standard length in the industry.
But two successful votes must happen before the strike is over. First, boards of the WGA's eastern and western branches must approve the deal. Then the 11,500 members themselves must vote for approval. Such votes are actually common with Hollywood unions, taking place every time a new three-year contract is negotiated, though they don't normally come at the end of a . In the , in 2008, board members voted two days after a deal was reached, and members voted two days after that. The agreement was approved overwhelmingly, with over 90% of writers voting yes.
That doesn't necessarily mean the vote is a sure thing. Some members are bound to be unsatisfied with the compromises their leaders reached on issues including compensation, the size of writing staffs, and the use of artificial intelligence in scriptwriting, especially after spending nearly five months out of work on picket lines. An 11th hour agreement that by a different union representing Hollywood crews in 2021 was controversial and . But the desire to get back to work could prompt some writers with mixed feelings to vote yes.
WHEN WILL WRITERS AND SHOWS RETURN?
Once the contract is approved, work will resume more quickly for some writers than others. were the first to be affected when the strike began, and may be among the first to return to air now. NBC's 鈥淭he Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,鈥� ABC's 鈥淛immy Kimmel Live鈥� and CBS's 鈥淭he Late Show With Stephen Colbert鈥� could come back within days.
But while the show's joke writers will be free to return, many of their usual guests will not, with the ongoing actors strike bringing limits on such appearances. And the shows' returns amid that second strike could prove controversial, as it did for the planned-then-axed resumptions of daytime shows including
The actors union has on the whole taken a less ardent approach than the WGA has, however. Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have, for example, granted allowing many non-studio productions to continue 鈥� something their Writers Guild counterparts refused to do 鈥� and they may not get in the way of attempts of shows to return.
Writers rooms for scripted at the strike's onset, including Netflix's 鈥淪tranger Things,鈥� Apple TV+'s 鈥淪everance鈥� and ABC's 鈥淎bbott Elementary,鈥� are also likely to reactivate quickly, though with no performers to act out the scripts, long delays between page and screen will be inevitable.
Film writers will also get back to work on their slower timeline, though those working on scripts or late revisions for already scheduled movies 鈥� including 鈥淒eadpool 3鈥� and 鈥淪uperman: Legacy鈥� 鈥� will certainly be hustling to crack open their laptops and avoid further .
HOW LONG WILL THE ACTORS STRIKE LAST?
The studios that make up the AMPTP opted to finish a deal with writers 鈥� who went on strike two months earlier 鈥� before even beginning to deal with actors.
have said they have received no overtures from the AMPTP since their strike began on July 14. That is likely to change now, and another round of negotiations is likely to begin, though it remains to be seen how long that may take. It was three months into the writers strike before the AMPTP reached out to , and the initial talks sputtered after a just a few days. A month later, the studios came calling again, and this time the deal was done less than a week later.
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Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press
