WGA & AMPTP Are Maybe Getting Somewhere

By Dustin Rowles | TV | September 21, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | September 21, 2023 |

I think we all like to believe that there are always hidden agendas, that everyone is playing 3D chess, and that this was always part of the plan. 142 days ago when the WGA hit the picket lines, I assumed that the studios already knew exactly how much they were willing to compromise and were just going to sweat out the writers for a month or two and extract their expected concessions and write a check and everything would return to normal.

But the reality here is the same reality in politics or the American Horror Story writers’ room: No one really knows what the hell they are doing. I think the studios genuinely thought they could make a few small concessions and deliver a lecture and settle the whole matter in six to eight weeks, or enough time to free up some cash but not so long as to endanger the flow of television and movies. I think the writers probably also thought that the studios — particularly the legacy studios — would put the interests of their companies ahead of their own egos.

But never underestimate the ego of wealthy white men! We’re on the brink of the longest WGA strike ever, mostly because the CEOs refused for too long to concede that they had lost. Not only had they lost the PR game, but the writers were more willing to sacrifice paychecks now for better paychecks in the future that the CEOs were willing to sacrifice their hubris.

In any respect, the WGA and the studios met yesterday. They released a joint statement: “The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow.” That statement, which contains no effort by either side to undermine the other, is the best 13 words of the last 142 days. Negotiations did not break down. They will continue today. An insider, according to Deadline, described the sessions as “very encouraging.”

We’ll take it. It doesn’t mean that the strike will be settled today or even this week, and even if it were quickly settled, the WGA writers will have to vote on it, and there is still the matter of SAG-AFTRA, which seems as dug in as the writers this time, so who knows how much longer this will go. The important thing, however, is that the state of negotiations is “very encouraging” and that Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Bob Iger, Universal’s Donna Langley, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav are in the room helping to move things along. We may get that next season of Hacks yet!