Late-night shows on hiatus after Writers Guild goes on strike

Late-night television has been the first casualty of the Writers Guild of America’s labor strike, which went into effect Monday, May 1 at midnight.

An overwhelming number of the writers who belong to the Hollywood organization voted to go through with the strike in April, on the premise that the industry’s production houses and streaming giants honored their requests for fairer wages.

The production organization, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), declined to meet the demands of the WGA, and thus the labor strike.

The date of May 1 was significant, as that was the day the contract came due.

Now there is no active contract between the group of about 350 Hollywood production companies and industry writers.

What’s happening with the late shows?

Late-night shows such as ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’, CBS’ ‘The Late Show’, ‘Comedy Central’s ‘Daily Show’, and NBC’s ‘Tonight’ and ‘Late Night’ will all be on hiatus indefinitely as a result of the strike, with experts predicting at least three weeks until the issue can be resolved.

Rather than showing fresh, up-to-date broadcasts in the late-night time slot each night, viewers will rather find rerun episodes.

Fans of ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ and ‘This Week Tonight’ with John Oliver will be disappointed to know that HBO has also been affected and production has ceased.

Further, NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ will not be filmed for the foreseeable future.

Comedy Central is reportedly auditioning several guest hosts for the ‘Daily Show’ so they can return earlier.

When was the last strike?

The WGA went on strike in 2008, and then too, the late-night- talk shows were the first to indicate the consequences as they ripple throughout Hollywood.

Late-night shows were off-air for two months.

Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, and Conan O’Brien returned to the air, with Letterman negotiating new terms with the writers union and bringing his writing staff back.

Leno forged his own way, and did his own monologues.

“There are more people picketing NBC than watching NBC,” Leno joked to his audience when he came back on air.