Beginning on May 2, 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) is partaking in an ongoing labor dispute against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers as a result of failed contract negotiations. The end goal of the strike is to secure higher wages and more residuals for television and film writers. The most recent writers strike prior to this, beginning in 2007 and ending in 2008, lasted roughly 100 days, about the expected length of the current strike.

While the reason behind the strike is clear to most readers, there are still some parts left in the dark that audiences are unsure of. For instance, how will the strike directly affect current, upcoming, or previously aired shows. As the strike continues into its third week, many major network shows have halted production with minimal explanation.

While shows such as ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” were scheduled to begin writing for their next season come May, it’s been reported that this won’t be happening. Likewise, Apple TV+’s “Severance”, HBO’s “Hacks”, and Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” have all halted production on their upcoming seasons. 

The strike has also paused the production on live network television shows as well, namely, NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Myers” and “Saturday Night Live”, the titular host of the former expressing his support for the writer’s strike mere days before his show went off the air. It’s also worth noting that daytime talk shows, news, and reality shows will not be impacted by the strike.

Another factor that has come into play is studio consideration of using AI to generate scripts which caused a good amount of controversy, re-sparking the longstanding debate about the ethical usage of AI and how we should progress with it moving forward.

So how will the strike come to an end? The answer is simple: when writers begin receiving higher wages. The unclear part is how long it will take for this to happen considering the media companies’ contracts with the Director’s Guild of America expire on June 30, though no official talks or negotiations have been scheduled.