Strike! How does the Writers Guild of America walkout affect viewers?

Are you a fan of Jimmy Fallon’s comedy bits? Or Seth Meyers’ “News of the Week?” Do you follow the latest doings in Genoa City in “The Young and the Restless?”

You might have to put your viewing habits on hold.

The Writers Guild of America, which represents more than 11,000 screenwriters for TV and movies, has gone on strike — its first in 15 years. Negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, are deadlocked after the most recent guild contract expired.

It isn’t pretty.

I could get into all the X’s and O’s and fine-print details, but let’s get to what you really want to know. How will this affect the things you watch? And how long is this going to last?

Let’s start with the timing. It sounds as if there is a sizable gap between the two sides. There’s really no telling how long the work stoppage might be.

The Los Angeles Times’ Anousha Sakoui wrote, “The walkout, which could last for weeks or months, is expected to halt much of TV and film production nationwide and reverberate across Southern California, where prop houses, caterers, florists and others heavily depend on the entertainment economy. The previous writers' strike in 2007 roiled the industry and lasted 100 days.”

Sakoui also noted, “The walkout will also mean temporary job losses for crew members and comes at a difficult time for the Los Angeles region, where many businesses are still attempting to recover from the effects of the pandemic and major employers are slashing payrolls. Hollywood studios have laid off thousands of workers as Wall Street investors punished them for losses linked to their streaming businesses.”

So what does this all mean for you, the viewer?

The first shows impacted are the late-night talk shows. The shows are taped during the day and air that night and include monologues with that day’s news. Starting Tuesday night, “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” went to reruns.

The strike also will impact shows such as Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and Bill Maher’s HBO show. Those shows also are expected to air reruns.

“Saturday Night Live” has three live shows left in the season, starting with this weekend’s show that was supposed to have former cast member Pete Davidson as host. But the strike will shut down the show. So the saying, “Live from New York …” won’t actually be live. “SNL” will go to reruns.

After that, soap operas — only three remain on network TV — would be next. Those shows are usually shot weeks ahead of airing, but if the strike lasts long enough, they will eventually run out of written material.

As far as other network shows, or shows on streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu, The New York Times’ John Koblin and Brooks Barnes wrote, “If the strike is prolonged, viewers will begin to notice a dip in new TV series, though that will not become apparent until the end of the year. Reality series as well as international shows will begin playing in heavy rotation.”

But many of the network and streaming shows already have shows in the can, so to speak.

And movies? There’s a long runway between when films are shot and produced and when they are released. So movies already scheduled for later this year are expected to be released as planned. Depending on how long the strike is, you might not even notice a change in movies.

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The details

What is the strike about? Sakoui wrote, “In short, writers argue that their pay hasn’t kept up with the rapid pace of technological change. They say they are working for shorter periods of time and having to find several gigs a year to make ends meet. Typically, broadcast networks would order about 20 episodes for shows that would be worked on over 10 months. But in recent years, studios have more often focused on streaming short-order series with eight to 10 episodes.”

There’s more. Writers are arguing against what is known as “mini-rooms.” That is where a small group of writers start to put together a show before it goes (if it goes) to production, and they do it for minimum pay.

Those are just a couple of the bigger issues here.

The Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers put out a statement that said it has offered “generous increases in compensation for writers.”

Breaking news: Tucker Carlson’s inflammatory text

The New York Times’ Jeremy W. Peters, Michael S. Schmidt and Jim Rutenberg had a late-breaking story Tuesday night: “Carlson’s Text That Alarmed Fox Leaders: ‘It’s Not How White Men Fight.’”

According to the Times reporters, a text message sent by Carlson to a producer at Fox News in the hours after the Jan. 6 insurrection might have ultimately led to Carlson’s firing last week. The text was part of the redacted court filings in Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News, which was recently settled when Fox agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million.

In the inflammatory text, Carlson described watching supporters of Donald Trump attacking “an Antifa kid.” He said it was three against one, then added, “jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight.”

Then Carlson added in the text, “Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I’m sure I’d hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?”

The Times wrote, “The text alarmed the Fox board, which saw the message a day before Fox was set to defend itself against Dominion Voting Systems before a jury. The board grew concerned that the message could become public at trial when Mr. Carlson was on the stand, creating a sensational and damaging moment that would raise broader questions about the company.”

The Times writers added, “The text message added to a growing number of internal issues involving Mr. Carlson that led the company’s leadership to conclude he was more of a problem than an asset and had to go, according to several people with knowledge of the decision. In other messages he had referred to women — including a senior Fox executive — in crude and misogynistic terms.”

Silver speaks

Nate Silver and his data-driven political site FiveThirtyEight have been swept up in the massive layoffs at Disney. News of that broke last week.

On Tuesday, in a post on his Substack, Silver talked about hearing the news and what’s next.

He writes, “It wasn’t that much of a surprise given the depth of the Disney layoffs. But it was still devastating news. I’ve been at Disney for almost 10 years and it’s sad that my time is coming to an end. ABC News and ESPN gave us the freedom to experiment with data journalism a decade ago and their support meant a lot. We were still building the plane while we flew it and there was an obstacle course of successes and failures.”

Next for Silver is a book about gambling, which he has been working on for the past two years. He writes, “It’s an ambitious book. Subtopics include: poker, sports betting, game theory, venture capital and entrepreneurship, effective altruism, rationality and utilitarianism, existential risk, artificial intelligence, the cryptocurrency boom and the collapse of FTX, the commercial gambling industry, the personality traits associated with risk-taking, and declining life expectancy and changing attitudes toward risk in American society.”

He adds, “The other thing I know is that whatever comes next, I’ll want to have a broad portfolio of subjects to write about. Not just politics, in other words. And not necessarily even mostly politics. The cluster of topics around risk that I’m covering for the book really suit my unique life experiences, interests and skills. I know a lot about that world and the people in it. I’ll also want to continue to write about and analyze sports. I find I often have more to say about these subjects than the ‘political topic du jour’. But I do have a lot of value to add when it comes to polling and elections — and as you might have heard, there’s a big election coming up. So I’m not sure yet how to strike a balance between covering those other topics and 2024.”

Meanwhile, about the staff of FiveThirtyEight, Silver writes, “My colleagues at FiveThirtyEight are extremely passionate about their work, and they’re extremely conscientious people. Mass layoffs are brutal things that send best-laid plans to the four winds. If you're looking to hire ex-FiveThirtyEight staff, I would highly recommend them.”

Silver gets into FiveThirtyEight’s legacy and who (Disney and/or Silver) owns what in the future.

The Messenger

The Messenger, a news startup group funded by media entrepreneur Jimmy Finkelstein, will launch in beta with 200 employees on May 15, according to Axios’ Sara Fischer. Most of those employees, about two-thirds, will be in the newsroom.

The main coverage areas will be news and politics, but other verticals will roll out eventually. For example, business and entertainment will be rolled out in June and sports and tech/science are scheduled for July.

There also are plans for newsletters, podcasts and videos. A newsletter called “The Morning Messenger” will debut this month. Studios for video and podcasts are being built and are a part of the company’s long-term plans.

Setting a record

February’s Super Bowl LVII — the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory against the Philadelphia Eagles on Fox — set an all-time record as the most-watched Super Bowl ever.

According to updated Nielsen numbers, the game averaged 115.1 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes and digital streaming services. That number bests the 114.4 million viewers of Super Bowl XLIX in 2015. That game — the New England Patriots’ last-minute victory against the Seattle Seahawks — was on NBC.

Meanwhile, what a good time for the NBA. The playoffs are drawing big-time numbers because of marquee matchups and teams. Some of the league’s most popular teams from major markets — the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks — are all still alive in the second round.

Golden State’s Game 7 victory against Sacramento on Sunday afternoon averaged 9.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched first-round game in 24 years. Now this round features Golden State’s Steph Curry against the Lakers’ LeBron James, a showdown of, arguably, the league’s two most popular players and a reason why they will draw huge TV numbers.

Media tidbits

• Ben Smith — co-founder of Semafor, former media columnist at The New York Times and the founding editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News — has a new book out. “Traffic” is described as “The origin story of the Age of Disinformation: the candid inside tale of two online media rivals, Jonah Peretti of HuffPost and BuzzFeed and Nick Denton of Gawker Media, whose delirious pursuit of attention at scale helped release the dark forces that would overtake the internet and American society.”
• And here is Virginia Heffernan’s review of Smith’s book for The New York Times.
• Want to see an example of a superb use of public records information? This is how you do it. Politico’s Gary Fineout with “Who paid for Ron DeSantis’ trip overseas? No one will say.”
• The Buffalo News’ Tim O'Shei with “Through travel, new book, Luke Russert attempts to reconcile his famous father's death, find his own path.”
• The Hill’s Lauren Sforza with “Fallen Journalists Memorial approved for National Mall.”
• The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin with “CNBC Anchor Complained NBCUniversal C.E.O. Pressured Her for Years.”

Hot type

• No one writes with as much insight and fun about the game show “Jeopardy!” than The Ringer’s Claire McNear. Her latest is so good: “The Search for the Lost ‘Jeopardy!’ Tapes Is Over. The Mystery Behind Them Endures.”
• The New York Times’ James Wagner with “Passionate Baseball Fans and (Very) Thin Air Let Mexico City Shine.”

More resources for journalists

• Subscribe to Poynter’s Friday newsletter, Open Tabs with Poynter managing editor Ren LaForme, and get behind-the-scenes stories only available to subscribers.
• Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative — (Sept. - April, 2024) (Hybrid) — Apply by May 15.
• Lead With Influence (July 2023) (Seminar) — Apply by June 2.
• Celebrate the free press and democracy in style at Poynter’s Bowtie Ball on Nov. 18 at the JW Marriott in Tampa, Florida. Get tickets.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].