Oh No: Hollywood Writers Learn Tough Lesson Following Strike
The Writers Guild of America strike that crippled Hollywood for months last summer might have ended up being a Pyrrhic victory for those who wanted it most.
After supposedly winning big against the big, bad studios back with an agreement in September, writers have been feeling a sharp contraction in the industry ever since.
As entertainment news site Deadline reported last week, many have remained out of work since walking the picket lines last summer, with the boom of streaming shows finally reaching the bust stage.
“I sort [of] remember somewhere in 2019, I remember looking around and saying, ‘This is a gold rush. We’re in a boom town. And I’m not sure how long this thing is sustainable,'” veteran writer Neil Gaiman told the outlet.
“Right now, the boom is over, the gold rush has finished,” the “Good Omens” creator said.
Writer Julio Torres of “Los Espookys” also noticed that “everyone feels like the belt is tightening a little bit … and it’s getting harder to get things made.”
Their observations were not merely anecdotal evidence: The Hollywood Reporter reported on April 2 that while broadcasters ordered up to 98 pilots for new series 10 years ago, that number has dwindled to about 35.
Which, of course, left few jobs for the many, many writers in Hollywood, aspiring and veteran.
Now, many of them interviewed by Deadline had nothing but good things to say about the 2023 strike, despite the inevitable consequences.
Ilana Glazer of “Broad City” said she was “so proud of the writers and actors guilds for striking last year, that was so important,” and Anna Hagen of “The Diplomat” said that “for all of the difficulties of the moment, I think the strike was really meaningful and the victory significant and I’m hopeful about what will come out of it.”
The fact of the matter was, however, that, much of the reasons for the current market contraction could be laid at the feet of the strike.
The Wall Street Journal predicted as much on Sept. 30, days after the strike had ended.
It declared the end of “Peak TV,” with streaming services no longer ordering a large number of pilots for new shows.
“In effect, while many people in Hollywood will get better pay as a result of the deal, the contraction in spending means there will be less work to go around,” the Journal said.
Granted, the writing was on the wall for the end of the boom even before the strike, with many streaming services wracking up debt with massive mergers and losing money from poorly received shows.
Not only that, but one of the concessions of the strike was higher royalties for writers — and since streaming services are businesses most concerned with their bottom line, they have tried to cut costs by hiring fewer writers.
As unfortunate as these writers’ situations have become, it has just been simple economics that brought the industry to this dire state.
Everyone deserves fair pay for their work, but attempting to make streaming services mirror the compensation structure of traditional television, meant the streaming companies would cut costs by hiring fewer writers.
The writers got the concessions for better, and different, pay scales for their work, after five long months of striking — but if that resulted in fewer shows getting produced, did the Hollywood writers really win?
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