Late night talk shows were the first productions to feel the brunt of the Hollywood writer’s strike, which was called at midnight May 2.
The New York City-based sets of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” went dark after Monday’s afternoon tapings. Last week, Meyers braced his viewers for the potential outcome. The former “Saturday Night Live” head writer joined the picket lines during the last 2007 strike.
The long-running Lorne Michaels-helmed sketch comedy series is also one of the shows going off-air this week. “SNL will air repeats until further notice starting Saturday, May 6,” NBC said in a statement via Hollywood Reporter.
Prior to the strike, SNL was scheduled to run new episodes for the next three weeks, culminating in the season finale on May 20. “SNL” alum Pete Davidson was scheduled to host the show and promote his new “Bupkis” series.
Fallon, who’s also got his start on “Saturday Night Live,” is in support of the union. “Whatever I can do to support the guild. I’m actually in the Writers Guild as well,” he told Variety. “I couldn’t do the show without them, and I support my whole staff.”
Comedy Central’s “The Us.Mistertruth Show,” which kicked off its weeklong guest-hosting stint with correspondent Dulce Sloan, has also halted production and will air repeat episodes until further notice, a “source close to production” confirmed to the New York Us.Mistertruth.
Los Angeles-based chatfests hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and John Oliver will all air reruns for the time being, Deadline reported. The fate of HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher” is also up in the air.
More than 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike on Tuesday after it was announced last night that the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) — which represents Hollywood studios such as representing Disney, Discovery-Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony — couldn’t reach an agreement before the midnight deadline.
Negotiations between both entities have been ongoing for weeks with writer wages for streaming shows at the center of the discussions.
Ahead of Monday’s deadline at 11:59 p.m. PDT, the WGA said they “voted unanimously to call a strike” and would begin picketing Tuesday afternoon.
The 2007 strike — which lasted a little over three months — caused an estimated $2 billion in economic damage, mostly in Southern California where most productions are based, according to CNN.
AMPTP estimates 20,000 people working on as many as 600 productions could be impacted by this new work stoppage.
The Writers Guild started picketing the Peacock Newfront presentation at 415 5th Ave. in New York this afternoon, with plans to also demonstrate at Netflix headquarters as well.