The producers and/or studio can always authorize more for a particular show, but the WGA is negotiating for the mandatory minimums for all shows produced by AMPTP members.

Based on the PDF the AMPTP put out, there's some argument for there being at least 3 writers, including the showrunner, but it's more an inference than directly stated:
https://labor.amptp.org/sites/labor....%2008%2022.pdf
One possible point for wriggle room for the AMPTP is what counts as a "high budget" streaming show. Also, it's unclear if the two extra writers can stay through "production" or only through "the duration of the writers' room," since their letter states both.

Note that the showrunner historically has stayed through the end of production since they're , you know, the showrunner.

And, again, these are minimums. A show could retain more writers for longer, if they choose, but the WGA doesn't want to have to rely on producers making the wise decision to retain talent and use them for longer, and the studio approving it.

I'm all for fair compensation, but I don't think mandatory minimums for a writers room is a valid ask. If the producers decide to sacrifice quality, it should be their prerogative. It's not a safety issue. You have to have a mandatory minimum of firefighters or doctors and nurses, but no one get's hurt if a show doesn't have enough writers.

Shall we just see how much these "unreasonable" demands will actually cost the studios?

Twitter

Posting the Picture for when Twitter X eventually dies:


One nitpick is that for Amazon, Sony, and Apple, that's their total revenue as a company, where the bulk of their revenue comes from other sources than just movies & TV.

For example, this breakdown of Amazon:


Shows that Prime is "just" $35.22 Billion in revenue. And video is just one feature of Prime.

Meanwhile, for Apple:


"Services" is $78.13 Billion. And that includes more than just AppleTV+ .

Still, you could put their revenue specifically from streaming closer to Netflix, and the costs would still be just a fraction of a percent.

Maybe not a "safety" issue, but possibly mental health issue, if the few writers that are hired are tasked with more work than before, and thus endure more stress trying to get the work done on a deadline. If a union thinks a company is asking too much per employee, they should be able to mandate some minimums.

Also, when the writing suffers, the writers get blamed, not necessarily the studio. At the least, it's probably harder to land a new job when your last gig was for a critically derided flop. So its in the writers interest to maintain writing quality, even if the studios don't seem to care about anything except pushing out as much "content" as possible.

On a somewhat related note, I watched this video yesterday that goes into how the proliferation of the word "content" has likely had a negative effect on the film and TV industries, possibly leading to the conditions that sparked these strikes:

AMPTP hires Crisis PR firm

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bu...73e828aa12daf1

Obviously their negotiating tactics are not working.

Alan Sepinwall previews a bleak Fall TV slate and looks towards an almost completely barren 2024 if the strikes aren't resolved soon :

Not to sound callous, but I got the $5-add on to my Amazon Prime Video account for Masterpiece Theater & Mysteries, so I'm set with new content for awhile.

If this gets any worse some of us might have to resort to watching some of our unopened and untouched physical media...

This is horrible. I may have to spend time with the wife at night doing something other than watching TV.

Assuming they didn't sell off their collection already. But they could just as easily stream all the stuff they never got around to watching.
Unless you spent 12+ hours a day for years watching shows/movies, there's no shortage of unseen quality back catalog stuff to watch.

That does bring up an interesting dichotomy. I wonder what the Venn diagram is of people supporting a working wage for the writers and actors including streaming residuals and those who complain that their streaming services are becoming too expensive (especially considering how really we are living in a golden age of available content for the cost). I know up top they're taking all the cookies, but they will certainly pass down at least some of the "extra" expense to the customers (which I'm fine with).

I got plenty both of unwatched media and unwatched streaming shows, I've never been able to catch up but it looks like I'll have plenty of time now. I probably have enough stuff to watch for the rest of my life.

Can you imagine what next year's Emmy nominees are going to look like? There aren't going to be 10 dramatic series to nominate from. You'll see a dozen nominees from The Idol and Secret Invasion. It would suck. I assume they'll just skip a year and lump the few worthy series into the 2025 Nominee pool, or maybe do two 18 month windows back-to-back.

That might be worth watching for the comedic value.

And the winner for best actor in a dramatic series is...The Weeknd for The Idol! Best guest actor in a dramatic series... That guy from Young Guns who wasn't a Sheen, Lou Diamond Philips, or Kiefer Sutherland wins for President Somethingorother in Marvel's Secret Invasion!

Maybe it would be a good opportunity to finally stop televising the stupid thing. Well, except that it would be muchly needed content itself.

They didn't delay the 2020-21 cycle when Covid halted Production and they had a smaller pool to choose from. What you will see is a few surprise series noms of highly watched shows like Ahsoka,Ragnarok and One Piece or critical hits that don't have big names(Reservation Dogs)

What a cool concept, to raise money for the out-of-work employees that certain Forum members here care so much about :

Twitter

Only one note : John Oliver is not a "Late Night Host".

This reminds me of a Frank Burns quote from MASH (TV):

"If you got all the supplies you needed, we wouldn't have anything to inventory."

The last thing anyone cares about when there are few/no new shows/seasons to watch is how it'll effect awards.

The summer was bleak too with no new late night talk shows

The obvious difference is that late night shows could come back tomorrow if the strikes were to end.

I just read about that, I'm totally in for this, as I really miss the late night shows (I'm gonna include John Oliver for that because he's awesome ).

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/pea...22-1235487593/

599 original scripted shows aired in 2022 according to this report from January. That's all platforms.

How many did this forum actually pay attention to? 10? There is no shortage of original scripted content. It just really depends on how picky you are and how much free time you have.

This is why the strike probably wouldn't effect a lot of streaming viewers,their is just a ton of shows made in the last decade a lot of people will just catch up with shows they have been meaning to see even when the pipleline of new content freezes. Now a lot of old cable subcribers who watch network tv,it will certainly effect them as well as the companies who own the big 4 networks.

Yeah, this is pretty perfect.