Late-night talk shows to shut down due to Writers Guild strike
Late-night talk shows are on hold starting Tuesday after writers agreed to strike.
Shows including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” are set to go dark Tuesday.
Other shows impacted will be “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and “The Daily Show.”
According to Deadline, weekly shows “Saturday Night Live,” “Real Time with Bill Maher” and others will make decisions later in the week.
Most will air re-runs.
Television and movie writers declared late Monday they will launch a strike for the first time in 15 years.
The Writers Guild of America said that its 11,500 unionized screenwriters will head to the picket lines Tuesday. Negotiations between studios and the writers, which began in March, failed to reach a new contract before the writers’ current deal expired. All script writing is to immediately cease, the guild informed its members.
The guild is seeking higher minimum pay, less thinly staffed writing rooms, shorter exclusive contracts and a reworking of residual pay — all conditions the WGA says have been diminished in the content boom driven by streaming.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade association that bargains on behalf of studios and production companies, said it presented an offer with “generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals.”
In a statement, the AMPTP said that it was prepared to improve its offer “but was unwilling to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the guild continues to insist upon.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.