At the time of writing, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA members are still on strike. I've been purposefully avoiding writing about the strikes, because frankly I have no real understanding of any of the issues involved to the degree that I would be comfortable providing any opinions or commentary, and I don't want to contribute to the noise. I am absolutely pro-labor, however, and the fair compensation of artists and writers in the streaming era feels long overdue.
However, I think writing about the impact of the strike on average consumers at this point should be pretty safe territory. We're getting to the point where the effects of the strikes are impossible to ignore, especially when you're a media junkie already bracing for the impending media drought. It's not just that the late night shows have been off the air since the beginning of May, or that movie stars haven't been able to promote any shows or movies since mid-July, but we're seeing studios making or considering more drastic moves as their supply of new media starts to run dry. "Dune 2" was just delayed to next spring, and it won't be the last tentpole to move.
Even if the strike is resolved immediately, the pause has been long enough that we're going to be feeling the effects of this for years. The last major writers strike of 2007-2008 changed the television landscape permanently, and the current strike has already lasted longer and been compounded by two guilds striking simultaneously. Because of how long it takes to actually create movies and shows, there's still a cushion of media that's finished or in post-production being steadily released. You might not even have noticed that actors have been scarce for interviews, since some promo material is often shot months in advance, but it's getting harder and harder to pretend that everything is business as usual.
If you're an awards season buff, you'll probably have heard that the Emmys have been moved to next January, right in the middle of what's traditionally been Oscar season. Since the awards shows are considered promotional activities, and FOX understandably doesn't want to air a ceremony where none of the stars show up, the big night has been delayed, even though the nominations have already been announced. If the strike doesn't get resolved soon, Oscar season may also be forced to move. The smaller prestige films are way more reliant on promotional campaigns featuring their talent, and several titles like "Challengers" and "Poor Things" have already seen their releases postponed. The film festivals are expected to be sparsely attended. And can you imagine an Oscar season without any FYC campaigning by the actors?
All work has halted on most studio produced shows and movies, including all of 2024's MCU movies, "Wicked," the "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" sequel, "The Last of Us," "Euphoria," "Sandman," and more. A couple of productions like "House of the Dragon," are still filming because most of their cast members are British and not SAG-AFTRA members. A very narrow category of independent productions have waivers to move forward. As a result, nothing announced to be coming out in 2024 may actually be coming out in 2024. You may have noticed that San Diego Comic-Con was very quiet this year, since nearly all the bigger companies canceled their panels. This is where we usually get a lot of announcements, sneak peeks, and interviews about upcoming projects, but with so much up in the air, hype for anything has been scarce.
On broadcast television, the fall schedules are being filled with game shows, reality shows, and reruns. A couple of streaming shows are being transplanted to broadcast, like edited "Yellowstone" episodes on CBS this fall. ABC just ran all of "Ms. Marvel" to set up for the November release of "The Marvels." With no new episodes of "Ghosts," the original UK "Ghosts" will be filling in. Streaming has been the most protected from the effects of the strike so far, with services like Netflix pushing more foreign-made content and older shows like summer hit "Suits." However, the whole ecosystem has been going through a significant contraction this year. Prices are skyrocketing, the flow of new content has been dropping, and there's been a push toward ad-based services - that'll be the topic of its own separate post later.
I feel it's important to emphasize that this isn't going to be like the delays caused by the pandemic. In the pandemic everyone had to work around constraints, but there were a lot of creative people who were able to still figure out ways to get the job done and entertain us. The strikes mean a total blackout. Hollywood has shut down, and it'll take tremendous effort to get it going again.
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