At 12.01am PT on Tuesday morning, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called on its 11,500 members to go on strike. By Tuesday afternoon, many were on picket lines outside major studios in New York and Los Angeles, and the impact of a work stoppage over compensation, streaming-based residuals, minimum staffing guidelines and other concerns cascaded through Hollywood – though, given the timing, the proliferation of streaming, and the ability of studios to bank episodes ahead of time, it’s unclear how many people will notice.
At the frontline of impact were late-night variety shows, which rely on writers to craft topical jokes based on up-to-the-minute headlines. On Tuesday, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers all halted production and will air reruns during a strike that could potentially last several weeks. (The last writers strike 15 years ago stretched for 100 days, from November 2007 until February 2008.) HBO paused production on the weekly shows Real Time with Bill Maher and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
