(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) The Writers’ Guild of America announced Monday that its 11,500 writers would go on strike to protest low pay.
In effect, this means the immediate cancellation of late night comedy shows hosted by Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, the Daily Mail reported.
The Writers’ Guild enacted a similar strike in 2007 which lasted 100 days. That instance cost Hollywood, which was much healthier financially at the time, $2.1 billion.
Of the four aforementioned hosts, Meyers in particular expressed his joy for the strike.
“I love writing,” he said after news of the strike broke. “I love writing for TV. I love writing this show.”
He also suggested that, though he loves his job, he supports the union, being a member of it himself.
“I love that we get to come in with an idea for what we want to do every day and we get to work on it all afternoon and then I have the pleasure of coming out here. No one is entitled to a job in show business.”
Writers, according to the report, have suffered numerous pay cuts as the major networks struggle to turn a profit and as streaming services continue to undercut the old legacy media.
For this reason, Meyers believes that screenwriters “are entitled to fair compensation.”
“They are entitled to make a living,” he continued. “I think it’s a very reasonable demand that’s being set out by the guild. And I support those demands.”
Real Time with Bill Maher, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Saturday Night Live will all be affected by the strike as well.
Some have suggested that, given the poor position of late night TV ratings and finances, the strike could be a death blow.
Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to the surprise of nobody, sided with the striking workers and labor unions, unable to stop himself from following the leftist tradition of inciting class warfare and never letting a crisis go to waste.
Last year, 8 Hollywood CEOs made nearly $800 million, yet pay for TV writers has fallen by 23 percent over the last 10 years. I stand with the nearly 12,000 @WGAWest writers on strike for a fair contract.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 2, 2023
