The end of the writers strike and the return of original shows to late night have been a boon for advertisers, according to EDO, which tracks the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

The season 49 premiere of NBC’s Saturday Night Live was the show’s most effective episode for advertisers since EDO began tracking engagement in 2015.

With former SNL cast member turned Taco Bell spokesman Pete Davidson as host, consumers were 102% more likely to engage with ads, and the show was 8.5% more effective than the next most-engaging episode on a per-person per-second basis.

The show also got a boost from the appearance of power couple Taylor Swift and Jason Kelce. 

“SNL's strong performance for advertisers highlights a continued Swift Effect with further star power drawn from guest host Pete Davidson and musical guest Ice Spice, who are all having cultural moments,” EDO said. “The greater ad effectiveness is a result of consumers' hunger for new premium programming and massive star power.” 

Previously, the most-engaging SNL episode aired on November 12, 2016, a few days after the presidential election. The episode was hosted by comedian Dave Chappelle and featured Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton playing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah on the piano. 

With the strike by the Writers Guild of America over and talks progressing between the studios and the actors union, sales-tracking platform MediaRadar estimated that television ad sales were down 10% to $14.4 billion from May to August, compared to a year ago when there was no strike.

MediaRadar expects ad revenue to also be lower in September.

Whether or not ad revenues will perk up as scripted programming returns will be important to the health of the TV business. Spending on talk shows and soap operas had been rising before the strike.

While the writers were on the picket line, late-night TV ad spending took the biggest hit, dropping 15% to $1.4 billion.

“Late night is one of the most profitable hours of TV, and a lack of talk shows during the writers strike really affected advertisers,” Todd Krizelman, CEO and co-founder of MediaRadar, said. “Now that the strike is over and talk shows are returning, we should see advertisers eager to pour money into those slots.”

Primetime was down 11% to $6.2 billion.

Talk shows — some of which continued to air new episodes — were down 6% to $300 million.

Soap operas were up 21% to $84.4 million. Soap actors are covered under an agreement that doesn’t expire until July and new episodes were aired.

The Writers Guild of America and the major video entertainment producers said Sunday that they've reached a tentative agreement to end a strike that started 146 days ago. 

“We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional — with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the WGA’s negotiating committee wrote in an email sent to members Sunday evening. 

But bold the word tentative: "To be clear, no one is to return to work until specifically authorized to by the Guild. We are still on strike until then,” the WGA message added. 

Also Read: Studios and Writers Close to Strike Settlement — Sarandos, Iger, Langley and Zaslav Bargain Into the Night With WGA

Starting Tuesday, the WGA’s negotiating committee will vote on whether to recommend the agreement to board of the WGA West and council of WGA East, so they can vote on it. If it passes that muster, the 11,000 members of the WGA rank and file will vote. 

The WGA went to the mat on issues including better residuals for streaming and protection from having technologies like AI make human writers suddenly obsolete. 

Details on terms of the WGA's agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) were not disclosed. 

“Though we are eager to share the details of what has been achieved with you, we cannot do that until the last ‘i’ is dotted,” the message to members added. “To do so would complicate our ability to finish the job. So, as you have been patient with us before, we ask you to be patient again — one last time.”

The general consensus in Hollywood is that after nearly five months (the strike began on May 2), the agreement will pass muster. Not only were entertainers including Drew Barrymore and Bill Maher threatening to cross picket lines in recent weeks and return to production, Warner Bros. Discovery last week said that the work stoppage would cut into fiscal-year earnings by as much as half a billion dollars. 

It's hoped — and expected — that the WGA agreement with the AMPTP will provide a blueprint to end a subsequent strike by Hollywood actors, that began in July. 

“SAG-AFTRA congratulates the WGA on reaching a tentative agreement with the AMPTP after 146 days of incredible strength, resiliency and solidarity on the picket lines," the actors guild said in a statement Sunday evening. 

"While we look forward to reviewing the WGA and AMPTP’s tentative agreement, we remain committed to achieving the necessary terms for our members,” the statement added. “Since the day the WGA strike began, SAG-AFTRA members have stood alongside the writers on the picket lines. We remain on strike in our TV/Theatrical contract and continue to urge the studio and streamer CEOs and the AMPTP to return to the table and make the fair deal that our members deserve and demand.”

Drew Barrymore decided Sunday to delay the debut of her eponymous daytime talker until the writers’ and actors’ strikes have ended, a reversal of the prior plan to go forward. 

CBS Media Ventures, which produces and distributes the show, stood behind Barrymore’s decision after a tumultuous  48 hours.

“We support Drew’s decision to pause the show’s return and understand how complex and difficult this process has been for her,” a spokesperson for CBS Media Ventures said in a statement.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Jennifer Hudson, which is also syndicated to TV stations across the country, and CBS’s The Talk, which is a nationally broadcast daytime talk show, also decided to delay their debuts. Still unknown is whether NBCUniversal’s Kelly Clarkson will open its fifth season next month. 

All three shows had planned to open their new seasons on Monday, September 18. Barrymore created an uproar on Friday when she took to her Instagram and posted a lengthy video apology for making the decision to go forward. After comments of protest poured in — including from actors Bradley Whitford, Debra Messing and Alyssa Milano — Barrymore deleted the video. On Sunday morning, Barrymore and CBS announced that the show would be put on hold until the strikes end.

“I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over,” she said, returning to Instagram to make the announcement. “I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today. We really tried to find our way forward. And I truly hope for a resolution for the entire industry soon.”

The Talk, also produced by CBS, quickly followed suit. 

“The Talk is pausing its season premiere scheduled for September 18. We will continue to evaluate plans for a new launch date,” according to a CBS statement.

The Talk is hosted by panelists Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Natalie Morales, Jerry O'Connell and Sheryl Underwood. The WGA had been picketing the show outside of its CBS Radford studio since it announced it would be returning. 

Other daytime talk shows – including ABC’s The View, which has two WGA writers on its staff who are currently sitting out of work – have already premiered. Disney’s Live with Kelly and Mark and Tamron Hall are produced without WGA-member writers as is Debmar-Mercury’s Sherri, which is debuting this Monday as planned.

Unless they have monologues — like Warner Bros. Discovery’s Ellen DeGeneres, for example — daytime talk shows are not heavily written. That said, if the show employs WGA-affiliated writers, the guild considers them struck shows if they are produced while the guild is on the picket line. The View has been picketed throughout the strikes but the show has remained on the air.

September still means something in the broadcast world. The traditional TV season begins with the kids in school and the weather starting to cool. But with the writers strike severely limiting the scripted content that’s available, ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW are piecing together their schedules with reality, shows acquired from overseas and buzzy series borrowed from corporate siblings. 

The broadcast nets have seen their share of the viewing public plummet across the past decade. Will viewers watch the second-tier programming? 

Myles McNutt, Old Dominion University associate professor of communication, sees a few parallels between how the networks were programmed during the 2007-2008 strike and how they are doing so today. But it’s a much different state of affairs for broadcast TV in 2023. The previous strike “felt like a short-term interruption of a long-term biz model,” said McNutt. “Now it’s, how can broadcast TV recover from complete collapse? It seems more existential this time.”

The networks are loading up on unscripted programming, none more eye-opening than The Golden Bachelor on ABC, which sees a 71-year-old widower search for his soulmate. ABC hopes The Golden Bachelor pulls in viewers the way The Bachelor and The Bachelorette do. 

As the typical broadcast viewer gets older, some believe a show about a septuagenarian can find an audience. “Not long ago, most networks would say, why make a show where the target is likely 50-plus, when the only demographic people care about is 18-49?” Dom Caristi, professor emeritus at Ball State University’s media department, said. “Those days are gone.”

CBS is also expanding its top reality franchises, as the network goes 90-minutes-per-episode for both Survivor and The Amazing Race. McNutt believes supersize episodes are here to stay. “I have no doubt they’ll never go back to 60-minute Survivor episodes,” he said. “It’s a really easy strike move that clearly is going to become part of the permanent lineup.”

The networks are also licensing scripted shows from other nations to help fill the holes on their schedules, none more so than The CW. Dramas Sullivan’s Crossing and The Spencer Sisters, and comedies Run the Burbs and Children Ruin Everything, are among the Canadian shows set to debut on The CW. 

Brad Schwartz, entertainment president at The CW, had a bona fide hit with a Canadian import in the past. While at Pop TV, he put Schitt’s Creek on U.S. TV. “He has experience in that approach,” Zak Shaikh, Magid senior VP of global media and entertainment, said. 

Coming from the U.K. to The CW is comedy Everyone Else Burns, while drama The Swarm is a coproduction by broadcasters in Germany, Italy, France, Scandinavia and Japan.

Season three of hospital drama Transplant, also from Canada, begins on NBC October 5. 

Mary Dalton, professor of communication and film studies at Wake Forest, called the imports a smart idea. “I think it makes a lot of sense,” she said. “For the people who aren’t watching a bunch of British shows on PBS or Canadian shows on the streamers, it does expand their horizons a bit.”

‘Ghosts’ Back to Back

CBS has a hit in comedy Ghosts, inspired by Ghosts in the U.K. This fall, CBS will air both Ghosts series, back to back on Thursdays. 

“It’s content most Americans have not seen, but they do already have a connection,” Ball State’s Caristi said. “They get the premise because they’ve seen the American version.”

CBS will also debut Yellowstone, a hit on corporate sibling Paramount Network, on Sundays, starting with season one. Shaikh said the Western is a better match for CBS than Showtime drama Dexter was when CBS aired it in 2008 during the strike. “It’s a smart strategy in that it can fit for CBS better,” he said. 

Still, some believe Yellowstone is enough of a hit that many CBS viewers have seen it. “I find it difficult to believe that someone in the CBS broadcast demo is not aware of Yellowstone,” McNutt said. 

CBS will also air a couple of episodes from Paramount Plus’s Frasier reboot.

Peaked TV

For years, viewers have lamented that there’s just too much great TV for one person to possibly consume. With the writers and actors strikes limiting the amount of TV being made, that may no longer be an issue. 

“In the early days of peak TV, you used to feel like there were so many wonderful shows, and you can’t possibly keep up,” Dalton said. These days, “there are so many mediocre shows I don’t want to keep up with them all. It creates time to go back and see the things you may have missed.” 

Writers and actors were on the picket line in Times Square the morning of August 4, facing down a pending thunderstorm while making their voices heard. 

“Union strong!” went one chant. “All day long!”

Perhaps 80 strikers were on the picket line in front of 1515 Broadway, home of Paramount. Other protests went on in Rockefeller Center, in the Flatiron District, and Hudson Yards. Connor Chase Stewart is a theater actor who said he was aiming to transition to film and TV work when the strike began. He said the vast difference between film and TV industry CEOs’ pay and that of working actors inspired him to protest. “People who have been on Netflix, who have ‘made it’ and been professional, are still living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “And that’s just not right.”

He said most actors are not looking to be wealthy or famous, but simply want to earn a living wage. “It takes so much courage to pursue a career [in the arts] when so many people tell you to do something more rational,” he said. “We’re fighting for a right to live. We’re fighting for the right to have this as a full-time career.”

The Writers Guild of America strike began May 2. The writers want better pay, including streaming residuals they feel are more fair; more consistent staffing in writers rooms; and assurances that they won’t be replaced by artificial intelligence. 

The SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike began July 14. 

One Times Square protestor’s sign read, “The Write Stuff (isn’t free…).” Some motorists passing by the protestors honked their horns in support. 

Even Times Square mainstay the Naked Cowboy showed up, strumming his guitar as he marched with the writers and actors. He mentioned having “multiple contracts” for his various businesses, and feels they must be updated as society evolves. “As the world of business changes, contracts have to change with them,” he told B+C. 

On the picket line, Asia Hernandez, an actor who also does voiceovers, said it is her first time on the picket line, as she “finally got a day off,” she said, from her various side gigs. 

“I have to stand with my brothers and sisters,” said Hernandez. “We’re moving into a future where there are a lot of things coming that we didn’t see, and there will be a lot of other things coming. There are a lot of changes going on and we gotta get our due.” 

Hernandez mentioned having been a dancer on MTV, next to the protest. “1515 Broadway was my home,” she said. “It meant something for me to come here.”

The forecast called for thunderstorms, but Hernandez was not deterred. “Let it rain. Let it rain,” she said. “It’s a beautiful day and we just gotta stand strong.”

Stewart also felt foul weather would not dissuade the writers and actors. “If the rain sends us inside, then we’ll be back out,” he said. “Rain or shine, we’re gonna keep coming out. We deserve it. It’s only fair. It’s really only fair.”

The last Writers Guild of America strike back in 2007 lasted 100 days, and this latest typing stoppage, which began Monday evening, could very well end up spanning the same chasm, according to a report released Thursday by Moody’s Investors Service. 

Also read: Writers Guild Calls for Strike, Says Producers Are Trying To Force Scribes Into ‘Gig Economy’

“We believe this standstill could last three months or more, with the stakes being larger,” the firm said in its report.

While the still unknown specter of “new media” residuals was a big factor in 2007, streaming also looms large in this latest interruption, but in a much different way. 

“It is not just the share of the revenue pie at stake this time, but how compensation will change to address how distribution has evolved in the streaming entertainment ecosystem,” Moody’s said. “Also at stake is flexibility for studios, versus protections for union workers, in light of technological advancement such as artificial intelligence (AI).”

Moody’s estimates an improved three-year contract for writers “will ultimately cost media companies for which the firm offers credit ratings $250 million to $350 million per year to settle.” 

The strike isn't timed well, as summer is an active rewrite period for fall broadcast-TV season. Speaking more broadly, the studios are up their eyeballs trying to balance eroding linear platforms while spending enormously on streaming services to get them up to scale. 

Moody’s sees the major exhibition houses including AMC Entertainment and Cineworld — which have little financial flexibility — faring the worst if the stoppage is lengthy.

“In a prolonged strike where new theatrical product is spread more thinly or runs dry, these companies could face a difficult time maintaining metrics commensurate with their ratings, particularly if they do not have sufficient committed liquidity or cash balances to withstand a long work stoppage,” Moody’s said. 

TV will take it on the chin, too. 

“Television will bear the brunt of a long strike as the implications of the writers’ strike will play out more noticeably for TV networks, stations, cable channels and streamers,” Moody’s said. “TV networks, particularly broadcast networks, consistently schedule new primetime shows to begin in the fall.”

Meanwhile, look for Netflix to fare well.

“Companies like Netflix, which have production footprints that are internationally diversified are better able to import much of that content if it is owned, or if they have broad licensing rights,” the firm said. 

Striking members of the Writers Guild of America set up an energetic picket line in front of the entrance to a NewFront presentation for NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock on Tuesday afternoon.

The picketers chanted “no contract, no content” and “no contract, no TV” and carried signs. 

Some of the messages on the signs were clearly thought up by professional writers. “This isn’t a late-night joke. We want a contract,” read one sign. “Without writers, we would …,” another said.

The event took place on Fifth Avenue, about 10 blocks from NBCU’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters, where late-night shows The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers and Saturday Night Live would be getting produced if writers weren’t striking.

The picketers were interviewed by local news reporters and talked about the threat to the jobs posted by artificial intelligence and proposed work rules that could make it difficult for writers to earn a living. One noted that the strike came as a surprise with many writers expecting an agreement, rather than a phone call that a strike had been called.

The crowd of picketing writers did not appear to keep people from attending the Peacock event. During the presentation, there was no mention of the labor situation. No talent appeared at the event and the Tonight Show, Late Night and SNL were mentioned only briefly among programs that can be watched the next day on Peacock.

NBCU had no comment on the picketers, but some executives expressed hope the dispute would be solved quickly and business could get back to normal before upfront negotiations start.

The Writers Guild of America has authorized a strike, starting Tuesday, after failing to agree to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement with film, TV and streaming producers. 

The shutdown, the second in three years after COVID-19 paralyzed the video production business three years ago, will have broad-reaching impact, starting with the scuttling of network late-night shows on Monday. 

It’s the second WGA strike in the last 15 years. The 2007-08 strike lasted 100 days.

“The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing,” the WGA said in a statement, shortly after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers walked away from the bargaining table Monday evening. 

“From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television, to the creation of a ‘day rate’ in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession,“ the WGA added. “No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.”

AMPTP shot back with this statement: “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 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. The primary sticking points are ‘mandatory staffing’ and ‘duration of employment’ — Guild proposals that would require a company to staff a show with a certain number of writers for a specified period of time, whether needed or not.”

Gripes among scribes are myriad. On the broadcast, cable and streaming side, writers say that not only is the volume of projects in the post “peak TV” era decline, the number of episodes for each show they work is down markedly. This short-gig dynamic forces writers to perpetually seek their next job. 

“Here is what all writers know: the companies have broken this business. They have taken so much from the very people, the writers, who have made them wealthy,” the WGA said in a note to members. “But what they cannot take from us is each other, our solidarity, our mutual commitment to save ourselves and this profession that we love. We had hoped to do this through reasonable conversation. Now we will do it through struggle. For the sake of our present and our future, we have been given no other choice.”

Notably, the last time Hollywood writers struck in 2008, social media was in a much more nascent stage. This time around, evidenced by this tweet Monday night from X-Men scribe Gerry Duggan, writers seem more prepared for asymmetrical labor warfare. 

Nearly 98% the voting membership for the Writers Guild of America punched the "yes" chad Monday to authorize a strike should a new labor contract with producers not be hammered out by May 1. 

“These results set a new record for both participation and the percentage of support in a strike authorization vote,” the guild said in a statement. “Our membership has spoken. You have expressed your collective strength, solidarity and the demand for meaningful change in overwhelming numbers. Armed with this demonstration of unity and resolve, we will continue to work at the negotiating table to achieve a fair contract for all writers.”

The yes vote doesn't necessarily mean a strike is imminent. In 2017, nearly 96% of the guild's voting body chose to authorize a strike, which ultimately didn't materialize. 

But in 2007, after the WGA authorized a strike with a 90% yes vote, a works stoppage ultimately transpired that stopped TV and movie production for 100 days. If a strike were to come to pass this year, of course, video streaming would be impacted, too. 

On the other side, the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers released a statement Monday the authorization vote "should come as no surprise to anyone," given the WGA's voting history. 

“Our goal is, and continues to be, to reach a fair and reasonable agreement,” the alliance said.