WGA and AMPTP Issue Joint Statement After ‘Encouraging’ Day of Negotiations, With Talks Set to Resume Thursday

There’s some positive news (finally!) in the months-long Hollywood writers strike.

The WGA and the AMPTP issued a joint statement on Wednesday after both sides returned to the table for further negotiations: “The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow.” Wednesday’s talks, the first in nearly a month, were attended by studio CEOs Bob Iger (Disney), Ted Sarandos (Netflix), Donna Langley (NBCUniversal) and David Zaslav (Warner Bros. Discovery), our sister site Variety reports, with an inside source describing the talks as “encouraging.”

CNBC was even more optimistic, reporting that the two sides are “near an agreement” to end the strike and “hope to finalize a deal” on Thursday — while cautioning that if a deal isn’t reached tomorrow, the strike “could last through the end of the year.”

The simple fact that the two opposing sides are releasing a joint statement has to be considered a sign of progress, considering how heated the impasse has become. The WGA, which represents Hollywood movie and TV writers, first went on strike in May, with writers demanding better residuals from streaming shows, minimum staff sizes to prevent the use of “mini rooms” and protections from the use of AI, among other things.

“Over the past decade, the companies embraced business practices that slashed our compensation and undermined our working conditions,” the Writers Guild of America West wrote in a tweet back in April. “We are asking to restore writer pay & conditions to reflect our value to this industry. The survival of our profession is at stake.”

The writers strike is now well into its fifth month, with actors guild SAG-AFTRA joining them on the picket line in July with many of the same demands. The WGA and AMPTP last met on Aug. 22, but no progress was made, with the WGA dubbing the meeting a “lecture” and the AMPTP breaking a media blackout by releasing their latest offer to the public. Last Thursday, though, the two sides agreed to sit down again this week.

The dual strikes have brought the TV world to a virtual standstill, with no shows being written or filmed and the networks’ fall TV lineups being decimated as a result. Fox entertainment president Michael Thorn predicted that the strikes would have to be resolved by Oct. 1 to have any chance at getting new episodes of scripted TV series on the air during the 2023-24 broadcast season.