(Los Angeles) Union leaders and Hollywood studios reached a tentative agreement Sunday to end a historic screenwriters’ strike that has lasted nearly five months, although no deal is yet in the works for striking actors .
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced the agreement in a statement.
This three-year contractual agreement – reached after five marathon days of renewed negotiations between WGA negotiators and an alliance of studios, streaming services and production companies – must be approved by the board of directors and members of the guild before the official end of the strike.
Terms of the deal were not immediately announced. The agreement in principle to end the last writers’ strike, in 2008, was approved by more than 90% of members.
Through the deal, late-night shows including NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live! from ABC, could return to the airwaves within a few days.
As writers prepare to potentially open their laptops again, things are far from back to normal in Hollywood, as talks have yet to resume between the studios and the striking actors. Film crew members who found themselves out of work following the shutdown will remain unemployed for the time being.
The proposed solution to the writers’ strike comes after negotiations resumed Wednesday for the first time in a month. Executives such as Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros.’ David Zaslav. Discovery and NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley were reportedly directly involved in the negotiations.
About 11,500 WGA members walked out on May 2 over issues with pay, the size of the shows’ writing staff and the use of artificial intelligence in creating storylines.
The writers’ strike immediately paused late-night talk shows and Saturday Night Live, and has since sent dozens of scripted shows and other productions into limbo, including the upcoming seasons of Stranger Things from Netflix, HBO’s The Last of Us, and ABC’s Abbott Elementary, as well as films like Deadpool 3 and Superman: Legacy. The Emmy Awards were also pushed back from September to January.
More recently, writers have targeted talk shows that skirted strike rules to return to the air, including The Drew Barrymore Show, Real Time With Bill Maher and The Talk. All have turned around in the face of picketing and pressure, and they are expected to return quickly.
The combined strikes were a pivotal moment in Hollywood, as creative workers took on the leaders of an industry transformed and torn apart by technology, from the seismic shift toward streaming in recent years to the potentially revolutionary emergence of artificial intelligence in the years to come.
Screenwriters have traditionally struck more than other sectors of the industry, but had enjoyed a relatively long period of industrial peace until spring negotiations for a new contract broke down.
On July 14, after more than two months on strike, writers were joined by 65,000 striking film and television actors.
It was the first time the two groups had struck together since 1960. In this walkout, the writers’ strike started first and ended second. This time, the studios chose to deal first with the writers.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group that represents employers in the negotiations, was the first to propose resuming negotiations in August. Meetings were short, infrequent, and unproductive, and discussions remained silent for another month.
