Late-Night Shows to Go Dark Amid Writers Strike

Your favorite late-night shows could be on pause for some time due to a writers strike that went into effect Tuesday after the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers contract negotiations failed.

The AMPTP ended contract talks with the WGA hours before the contract expiration deadline Monday night, prompting the Writers Guild to call for a strike to begin at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

In a statement to Variety, the WGA said, “For the sake of our present and our future, we have been given no other choice.”

The AMPTP says the WGA refused to compromise on key issues. “The AMPTP presented a comprehensive package proposal to the Guild last night which included generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals,” the union said in a statement issued to Variety Monday night. The AMPTP also indicated to the WGA that it is prepared to improve that offer but was unwilling to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the Guild continues to insist upon.”

Topical daytime television and late-night shows will be the first to feel the impact of the strike, with the latter set to air reruns starting tonight, according to Deadline. Popular nightly shows, including “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” are all set to go dark beginning Tuesday.

“The Daily Show” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” are also scheduled to go into repeats.

Meyers, who is a writer himself, expressed support for the WGA. “I love writing. I love writing for TV. I love writing this show. I love that we get to come in with an idea for what we want to do every day and we get to work on it all afternoon and then I have the pleasure of coming out here,” Meyers said on “Late Night.” “No one is entitled to a job in show business. But for those people who have a job, they are entitled to fair compensation. They are entitled to make a living. I think it’s a very reasonable demand that’s being set out by the guild. And I support those demands,” the comedian added.

Meyers went through a similar situation during the '07-'08 strike that occurred while he was at “Saturday Night Live,” which NBC tells Variety "will air repeats until further notice starting Saturday May 6." “Saturday Night Live” will not produce any new episodes for the foreseeable future, according to NBC.

Pete Davidson was set to make his “SNL” return May 6. That show will now no longer take place. Davidson joked on “The Tonight Show” about the strike being personal. “It sucks because it just feeds my weird story I have in my head, like, of course that would happen to me.”

Colbert and Kimmel were also hit by the last walk-out, when the former was host of “The Colbert Report.”

According to Deadline sources, late-night showrunners will stay in touch with each other as the strike progresses to give a unified approach to the situation, something that didn’t happen in ’07-’08.

“I have been and will continue to talk to the other shows to see what they’re up to,” one showrunner told Deadline. “We’ve got to support the writers — our writers are amazing. That said, the rest of the staff is amazing, and I don’t want to see anybody lose their jobs or lose a paycheck. What’s the happy medium there? Figuring that out, it’s not been easy.”

Deadline quotes one “SNL” star as telling them they have to think about the crew as well in situations like this. “I absolutely support the writers, and I want the writers to get what they deserve and need, but I don’t want our crew to be out of work. We can’t make this art without each other.”