Younger writers aren’t learning all the skills they need to move up or to be successful as showrunners in the future. To save money, some production companies won’t pay for writers to stay on through production or post-production, often leaving re-writes and edits to only one person. Working on a 20+ episode show, you would be employed for most of the year, but now writers are having to land several jobs in a smaller amount of time, with much more competition for fewer spots.įrom an industry-growth perspective, this also means that not enough younger writers or lower-level writers are getting the experiences they need to learn and progress in the industry to be able to take on more responsibilities on future shows. For example, if that’s the only show you write on, you’re only getting paid for the few weeks that you’re contracted. Writers working on a 6-episode show are only working in a writers’ room for 2-3 months and they are paid per week. This means fewer writers being hired into the room, sometimes omitting roles for lower-level writers. In the past on broadcast television, most shows had between 12 – 24 episodes, but now it’s common for shows industry-wide to have only 6-10 episodes. Over the past several years, writers’ rooms have gotten much smaller as the number of episodes ordered per season has declined. There are a few themes within the writer’s requests that led to the WGA strike: asking for better pay and stability for writers, restricting the use of artificial intelligence in writing, and improving pay and residuals for streaming content – something that has significantly fallen behind since the introduction of streaming.įor television, the WGA is focused on ensuring that writers rooms continue to work in a way that best serves writers and the shows themselves. Those specific proposals (and the counteroffers) can be read here. The Writers Guild has published a list of proposals that they requested to be part of the new contract with the AMPTP, and they’ve released the AMPTP’s replies to their members publicly. WGA strike: What do the writers want in their new contract? Entertainment, Universal Studios, Paramount, Netflix, Walt Disney Studios, Amazon, Sony, and many others.Īs the current contract between the WGA and the AMPTP was set to expire on May 1, 2023, representatives from the AMPTP and WGA have been meeting to try and agree on a new contract, but the negotiations were not successful and there was no agreement at the time of the current contract’s expiration – and so a strike was called for all members nationwide to stop work immediately. On the other side of the negotiation table is The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a group that represents over 350 production companies in the country, including Warner Bros. Though you may find an extremely small number of exceptions, all of the scripted television shows you watch are written by writers who are members of the WGA, and the guild works to negotiate contracts for writers, ensure fair wages and benefits for its members, and to help protect the “creative and economic rights of its members.” It’s the WGA’s Basic Agreement contract that writers work under. The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) was first founded in 1933, and almost all television and film writers (along with writers of some scripted podcasts and other digital media) are members of the WGA. If you’ve seen anything about the writers’ strike, you’ve likely read about the WGA. Who are the groups of either side of the WGA strike? Here’s a breakdown on what exactly it is that the writers are asking for, why it’s important to set new conditions in their contracts, how it affects current and upcoming projects, and why fans should care about everything that’s going on. While it can be frustrating to learn that your favorite series may have come to a stop or could be affected by this in the future, what the writers are asking for largely benefits audiences as well over the coming years. If you’re a fan of television and movies, you’ve very likely seen news about a nationwide WGA strike for writers in the entertainment industry.
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