Good morning.
Last week, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced a nationwide strike after weeks of negotiations broke down between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents over 350 film and television companies. An overwhelming majority of union members – 98% – voted in favour of the strike. 11,500 writers across the US put down their pens, bringing production to a screeching halt. Hundreds of writers picked up placards and joined picket lines outside major studios.
The last strike in 2007 and 2008 lasted for 100 days and cost the industry over $2bn. But the situation has deteriorated so much for writers in recent years that many feel they have been left with no choice. Pay has gone down in real terms, job security is non-existent, and working conditions are worsening. Many are pointing the finger at streaming services who have separated writers from the production of shows and refuse to pay more than minimum rates regardless of experience or success.
But as Wall Street starts to pile the pressure on Hollywood to turn an ever-increasing profit, the companies say they cannot afford to match union demands.
I spoke to Rick Cleveland, a television writer best known for his work on the HBO series Six Feet Under and NBC’s The West Wing, about the strikes and what they mean for the future of entertainment. That’s right after the headlines.
Five big stories
NHS | Long waiting lists that prevent patients from accessing NHS services in a timely manner has meant that people are getting sicker and feeling “helpless and forgotten”, Britain’s top GP has said.
US news | Seven people have been killed and 10 others were injured after a car plowed into a crowd outside a shelter serving migrants and homeless people in Brownsville, Texas. Investigators believe it may have been an intentional attack.
UK news | A blood test designed to measure whether a driver who has caused an accident was impaired by lack of sleep could be available within two years, making it easier to legislate against sleepy drivers or their employers.
Ukraine | At least five people were injured after Russia launched a wave of strikes on Kyiv and across Ukraine. The attacks come as Moscow prepares for its Victory Day holiday that marks the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Policing | The Metropolitan police has defended its officers after a suspect was tasered and two dogs were shot in front of screaming witnesses. Commenting on the incident, police said officers “have a duty to act where necessary before any further injury is caused”.
In depth: ‘One exec said he looks forward to the day scripts are written by AI’
The WGA’s demands are clear: they want pay increases for members amounting to about $429 million per year and structural changes to the way the studios are run. Despite record investments in television and film in recent years – with media companies raking in billions of dollars and seemingly more work than ever on offer – writers are seeing their piece of the pie shrinking rather than growing. The WGA released data earlier this year that found that median weekly pay for writer-producers declined 23% over the last decade when adjusted for inflation, while more and more writers are being paid the basic minimum rate. All while studio profits increased by 39% in that same period, and executive pay soared.
Stagnating wages, overworked staff, worsening working conditions, job precarity – these are all familiar talking points, but the strikes are also happening within the context of an industry that is in the middle of a turbulent transition.
One major change is the lack of transparency when it comes to the size of audiences: “Everyone used to know how many eyeballs were watching their episodes but the streamers are not making that information public,” Cleveland explains. That makes it impossible for a writer to try to peg their pay to the success of a movie or show.
Alongside this, writers rooms are shrinking, and those who are lucky enough to be brought in are hired for increasingly short periods of time. “Writers create their scripts in three months before production starts and then after that most of them are let go,” says Cleveland. “The showrunner and potentially one other writer stay on for the rest of the show to go through production with all the episodes regardless of who they were written by. So you can be on a great show, but you’re out of work in no time. And even if the showrunner loved you and wanted you back for season two of that show, it’s going to be at least a year or longer before the next season starts so you need to find another job.” These short-term gigs are making the job of a writer increasingly unsustainable, when much of the work is based in two of the most expensive cities in the US, Los Angeles and New York.
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Was it always this bad?
Cleveland got his start working in the industry in the mid 1990s, which he describes as “the new golden age” of television. At that point it was pretty normal for network shows to make around 22 episodes a year, and there was ample opportunity for writers to work their way up, with each promotion coming with a pay rise (“it was still a really decent living,” Cleveland says). And there were residuals – a type of royalty payment – that provided income even in off months. Every time a West Wing episode he wrote was repeated or sold on to another channel, Cleveland would get a cheque which would act as extra income.
Residuals offered security in a precarious career. However, streaming has changed the game. There are no repeats of a Netflix-produced show, and it will most likely never be sold on to another channel. Residuals still exist, but they are so small for most writers that they are basically negligible amounts of money. “Just yesterday I got a residual for five cents,” said Cleveland. Cleveland was around for the 2007/2008 industrial action, but says he cannot overstate the significance of this wave of strikes: “It feels like the most existential threat we’ve ever had.”
And what will it do for the entertainment we enjoy? The last strike brought us everything we love and hate about reality television, a dud Bond movie, and some bizarre late-night TV. “I can only imagine something worse than that being the outcome of this round of strikes,” Cleveland said.
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What has AI got to do with it?
If you are sick of reading about the looming spectre of artificial intelligence destroying jobs and art and life as we know it, then you are not alone. TV writers are one of the many groups who are concerned about how this new technology is going to affect their work and their rights. The WGA has demanded that AI should be regulated so that it “can’t write or rewrite literary material, can’t be used as source material” and that writers’ work “can’t be used to train AI”. The AMPTP rejected this proposal – they do not want to make any commitments regarding this issue yet, which has concerned those whose livelihoods and future depend on being properly compensated for their creative output.
“[The use of AI in scriptwriting] is straight-up plagiarism because it only knows what it’s being fed, and all of the choices it makes would be taken from what people actually wrote,” Cleveland adds. “But they won’t discuss it with us. One executive said he looks forward to the day that scripts are written by AI.”
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The future
The ground seems to be constantly shifting in the television industry, so it’s hard to tell what will happen next. Late night and comedy shows are the most immediately affected. Soaps will likely be affected too, as they film closer to broadcast, and depending on how long the strikes go on for audiences will notice shorter seasons or a dip in the quality of primetime comedies and dramas.
It’s not just the audiences that will feel the impact either. “In the local economy in Los Angeles, tens of thousands of people are going to feel this and that’s really unfortunate,” says Cleveland.
He’s concerned too for the next generation of writers who oftentimes are working in suboptimal conditions, on Zoom instead of in writers’ rooms, who are rarely on set and whose career progression is stunted. “When I got my union card in 1995, every generation of writers had made it better for the next generation but things have actually gotten worse,” says Cleveland. “That’s who I worry about, the younger cohort.”
What else we’ve been reading
Tim Adams’s report on the heavy handed police response to republican protesters during the coronation was packed full of detail, revealing just how draconian the UK’s new protest laws are. Nimo
Chris Godfrey’s revealing interview with Dannii Minogue delves into the singer’s status as a gay icon, behind-the-scenes family struggles, and why her stint as an X Factor judge was “like being in a tumble dryer”. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters
Coco Khan’s article on why it’s so hard to talk honestly and openly about sex is a brilliant read. The key, Khan writes, is having better communication as opposed to just talking to your partner more. Nimo
The New Yorker (£) digs into the unexpected success of the Super Mario Bros movie, which has now made over $1bn at the box office (and even inspired so-called adults like me to buy Mario and Luigi-themed shower gel). Hannah
Joel Snape breaks down one of the biggest food myths about ‘the most important meal of the day’, breakfast. “The take-home message, then, is that there’s no clearcut benefit to being a skipper or an eater,” writes Snape. “As long as what you eat is healthy in the first place”. Nimo
Sport
Premier League | Arsenal beat Newcastle 2-0 at St James’ Park, leaving Manchester City just one point ahead in the Premier League. Meanwhile, West Ham defeated Manchester United 1-0 at the London Stadium, a massive blow to the teams top-four hopes.
Women’s Super League | Liverpool’s 2-1 victory against Manchester City all but ended their title hopes in the WSL. Chelsea annihilated Everton 7-0, scoring five goals in the first half alone. Brighton’s good fortunes continued under Melissa Phillips with a 1-0 victory over West Ham. Manchester United continued to lead at the top of the WSL, cruising to a 3-0 win against Tottenham.
Tennis | Andy Murray won his first title since October 2019 at the ATP Challenger event in Aix‑en‑Provence, beating Tommy Paul. The victory is a great sign for Murray, who is now playing with a metal hip, ahead of the French Open.
The front pages
The Guardian reports “NHS patients developing cancer due to long waits, says top GP”, with the chair of the Royal College of GPs telling the paper that people are feeling “helpless and forgotten”.
The Financial Times says “US faces ‘constitutional crisis’ over debt ceiling deadlock, Yellen warns”. The i carries new polling that suggests “Britain more open to idea of ‘political’ king”
The Telegraph, Mail, Times and Sun carry pictures from the King’s coronation concert, all under the same headline: “Pa, we are all so proud of you”. The Mirror also leads with Prince William’s words to his father, with the headline “Granny would be proud”.
Today in Focus
Cotton Capital: the Guardian and reparations
Cotton Capital editor and journalist, Maya Wolfe-Robinson, talks to the Guardian editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, and to Joseph Harker, senior editor for diversity and development, about the findings that link the Guardian founder, John Edward Taylor, and his financial backers to transatlantic slavery, and how the Guardian has responded to those revelations.
Maya also talks to Barbara Makeda Blake-Hannah, a leading figure in the reparations movement, in Kingston, as well as Laleta Davis-Mattis, chair of Jamaica’s national council on reparations, which advises the government on the path towards reparatory justice.
Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett
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The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
The latest edition of the Guardian’s “A new start at 60” column features Joan and John Gallagher, who opened a hotel in the Priorat wine region of Spain two years ago. Renovating a six-storey building might sound like a huge challenge, but as Joan told the Guardian’s Paula Cocozza, the family had long relished change, with their initial move to Spain back in 2001 offering a chance to “experience another kind of life than rural Ireland.”
Now the family have a hotel, and a vineyard to boot. “At least 10 times a day I look out my window and get goose bumps”, says Joan. “Our roots are here.”
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
