Behind the Scenes: Unpacking the Hollywood Writers’ Strike

Hollywood writers have been on strike since May 2, and there are several reasons why they haven’t been able to make a deal with the studios.

1. Streaming: The way people watch movies and shows has changed a lot since 2007, which was the last time writers went on strike. Back then, a big issue was getting paid for DVD sales. Now, the major issue is streaming. Since Netflix released all episodes of “House of Cards” at once in 2013, it showed that people are willing to pay to watch a whole season at once. This changed how Hollywood works and how writers get paid. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) can’t agree on how writers should be paid for streaming. The WGA wants a payment system based on how many people watch a show, plus a guaranteed minimum payment. The AMPTP wants to share viewership data in the future and then decide on a new payment system.
2. Artificial Intelligence (AI): Writers are worried that studios will use AI to create scripts, which would mean fewer jobs for human writers. The studios have agreed to some protections to make sure AI-written material is not passed off as human work, and that writers are not paid less because of AI. However, writers also don’t want their past work to be used to train AI systems to write like humans.
3. Writers’ Rooms: TV shows are usually written by a group of writers who work together to share ideas. In the past, shows like “Seinfeld” or “Friends” had up to 12 writers working together under a lead writer called a showrunner. Now, studios want to reduce the number of writers in a writers’ room to three, including the showrunner. The WGA wants a minimum of six writers, with the option to hire more if needed. Writers believe that having fewer people in the room leads to fewer ideas and lower-quality work. Also, minorities worry they might be left out if the number of writers is reduced.
4. Length of Employment: Being a screenwriter or TV writer usually means working on different projects and sometimes pitching ideas that never get made. The WGA wants a guarantee that writers working on streaming shows will have a job for at least 13 weeks. The AMPTP is offering 10 weeks.

It’s important to note that even if the writers reach an agreement with the studios, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) is also on strike and needs to negotiate a separate deal.