The strike has erupted as the release of "iCarly's" third season approaches, and comes as Paramount Global announced layoffs of 25% of staff - making it the latest in a bevy of media companies to implement sweeping headcount reductions in recent months. (The WGA says the raises represent less than half that amount.) Hollywood's writers are striking over issues like stagnated wages, dried-up residuals, shorter seasons of streaming shows and practices like so-called " mini rooms" that have bitten into their income.īut from across the negotiating table, the AMPTP companies have shot back at the WGA's positions, saying last week that the writers are pushing for a "hiring quota that is incompatible with the creative nature of our industry," and that the studios' proposed minimum wage increases equate to nearly $97 million per year. (Spokespersons for Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) The "iCarly" writers will link up with the picket line outside the lot where the show is filmed, according to Ali Schouten, the series' showrunner and executive producer. On Thursday morning, picketers outside Paramount are set to receive a group of at least 15 reinforcements - writers for the Paramount+ sitcom "iCarly," along with a few of the show's cast members and at least one director. Since May 2, picketing has been underway at entertainment campuses across LA, including at Paramount Pictures' lot on Melrose Avenue, as well as some production studios in New York. That's hardly a living wage - and it's an example of a problem that writers from coast to coast have pointed to as their strike shuts down late night shows in New York and suspends productions in Los Angeles. This teacher saw far less upward mobility for himself, certainly in terms of compensation, than screenwriters developing TV shows and movies might expect to experience throughout their careers.īut I shared a story I'd recently reported about a writer who sold a pilot to the ABC-owned network Freeform in 2019 for $100,000 - earnings that, after taxes and commissions, dwindled to $40,000 for a three-year deal. After all, he suggested, with the entertainment industry's trademark glitz and glamour, surely the writers working for hot streamers like Netflix, Prime Video, or Apple TV+ must be doing just fine, while workers everywhere else suffer from rampant inflation and widespread layoffs. This person's questions generally boiled down to one central theme - incredulity about the reasons the writers are striking in the first place. Last weekend, I was engrossed in a vivid discussion with a unionized public school teacher about the 10-day-old writers' strike roiling Hollywood, as the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers face off over a new contract for the creators who dream up the stories that fill our big and small screens. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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