Less than a week before the Writers Guild of America’s latest contract expires, the guild today sent out strike rule to its members in highly anticipated labor action hitting Hollywood on the morning of May 2.
08.04.2023 - 00:57 / deadline.com
The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers sat down on Wednesday as talks continued over the holiday period that had previously been designated a two-week break.
Deadline understands that there could be even more negotiations next week as Hollywood heads into the fourth week of talks between the two sides. The AMPTP invited the WGA for earlier in the week but the writers informed the studios that they can’t make it until Friday, a source told Deadline.
Regardless, it shows both sides’ willingness to keep conversations going in a bid to avert a strike.
The WGA would obviously like to secure as favorable a deal as possible as voting begins on Tuesday (April 11) for strike authorization. While writers are expected to overwhelmingly vote in favor of the motion, a large number of writers would like to avoid a strike if they can score a deal that they are happy with.
In its note to members calling for the strike authorization vote, the WGA said that the AMPTP “failed to offer meaningful responses on the core economic issues in any of the WGA’s primary work areas — screen, episodic television and comedy-variety.” It added that “they have listened politely to our presentations and made small moves in only a few areas”.
It’s interesting the comedy-variety, largely covering late-night shows in streaming such as Apple TV+’s The Problem with Jon Stewart, and Peacock’s The Amber Ruffin Show, have such a front and center position in the talks. At the moment, minimums don’t apply in streaming and the WGA is hoping to change this. Insiders are optimistic that a deal can be reached on this issue.
Many writers including Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould and Daniel Kwan, the Oscar
Less than a week before the Writers Guild of America’s latest contract expires, the guild today sent out strike rule to its members in highly anticipated labor action hitting Hollywood on the morning of May 2.
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As the Writers Guild of America’s negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is about to enter the final week before their contract expires, both sides are hopeful it won’t take a strike to get a deal done. But the WGA’s long battle with the talent agencies showed it can reach agreements with even the most intractable of mega-companies.
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Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Talks between the Writers Guild of America and the AMPTP are expected to resume in earnest this week, with just two weeks left before the May 1 deadline to get a deal. The WGA leadership spent the last week meeting with members to encourage them to vote yes on a strike authorization. The deadline for members to vote is noon on Monday, and the membership is expected to deliver a resounding vote of support, likely in the high 90% range. In communications to members, guild captains urged members to deliver a “very high yes vote turnout” to maximize negotiators’ leverage. They also argued that the studios have been unwilling to budge on the guild’s main issues.
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Ryan Martinez, formerly a staff writer on Netflix’s Manifest and a graduate of the Warner Bros Television Writers’ Workshop, is a Harvard grad, a lieutenant in the U.S. naval reserves, and a combat vet who served in the war in Afghanistan. But now he says he’s returning to active duty in the Navy this summer “just to pay the bills,” which is why he’s voting “Yes” to authorize a WGA strike.
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The writers guild has officially called for its strike authorization vote.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Al Franken spent nine years as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, and it all finally paid off in recent weeks when he logged a stint as a guest host on “The Daily Show.” Franken turned in some robust impressions of Charles Schumer, Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins during one sketch on the Comedy Central program that suggested he was taking some pretty interesting notes when he served in that chamber. “I didn’t give them a heads up,” Franken says in a recent interview, after his run. “I served wth those people. Some I could do. I’m not one othose impressionists who can do everyone. I do who I can do.” While Franken is one of a number of noted hosts who have helped the show keep spinning after the depature last year of Trevor Noah, you might say he has been training for such an appearance for much of his professional life. Franken made some famous appearances on the long-running “Weekend Update” segment of “Saturday Night Live,” and, after a few stints on the show as a writer and performer, tried his hand at other exploits. He led comedic coverage of the the run-up to the 1992 presidential election for Comedy Central, presaging efforts to do so by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. He later became a progressive radio host for Air America. In recent months, he has been doing a comedy tour around the nation.
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