Writers strike is officially over: Contract breakdown and when your favorite shows are returning
nypost.comended on Tuesday, after a work-stoppage that lasted 148 days, bringing Hollywood grinding to a halt. As writers – who went on strike in May for the first time in 15 years – fought for fair pay, health care, and protection against studios using AI, the work stoppage resulted in suspended late-night talk shows, delayed movies, halted productions on hit shows such as “Abbott Elementary” “Severance,” “Yellowjackets” and the final season of “Stranger Things.”Additionally, broadcast networks like CBS had to fill in their gaps in programming by airing reruns and streaming shows such as “Yellowstone.” On Tuesday, the WGA board members approved a contract agreement with studios.The writers still have to vote to ratify the contract (voting will be between Oct.
2 and Oct. 9) but lifting the strike allows them to return to work, the Writers Guild said in an email. Among other details, the contract includes a 5 percent minimum pay increase, upon the ratification of the contract, with additional bumps in 2024 and 2026 (the contract lasts through 2026).
Regarding the hotly contested matter of AI, writers were able to gain protections. Under the contract, “AI can’t write or rewrite literary material.” If a company uses a writer’s material to train AI models, the WGA can deem that to be prohibited.
Companies must inform writers if material was written by AI, and writers can’t be forced by employers to use it. Regarding streaming, writers were also fighting to make streaming numbers less opaque, so that they could know the viewership on their own shows.
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