The Writers Guild has reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to end its strike after nearly five months. The parties today were able to untangle their stalemate over AI and writing room staffing levels.
The Gang of Four studio CEOs — Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Universal’s Donna Langley, Disney’s Bob Iger and Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav — weren’t present when the bargain was struck today, but they were taking part remotely as lawyers hammered out the details. That C-suite quartet had been in the room for the previous three days of bargaining.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom made calls today to the top negotiators and execs to check in about where things stood and where they were going, we’re told.
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Today’s talks began around 10 a.m. at the AMPTP‘s Sherman Oaks office, with Ellen Stutzman leading the WGA negotiating committee and AMPTP’s Carol Lombardini on the other side of the table. Sources said today’s meeting always was going to be about finalizing details for the next three-year contract.
Despite gripes in the room over press leaks, and last-minute asks by the WGA on Thursday night, several sources told Deadline that talks have not been contentious and have just kept moving. One person with knowledge of the situation equated Thursday to “an ant rolling a boulder up the hill.”
Despite today’s welcome news, it still will take a few days for the strike to be officially over as the WGA West and WGA East proceed with their ratification process. During the WGA’s last strike in 2007-08, a tentative agreement was reached on the 96th day and it wasn’t over until the 100th.
The first shows to shut down when the current WGA strike began on May 2 – late-night comedy shows and daytime talk shows – will be able to return to air almost immediately because SAG-AFTRA’s ongoing strike doesn’t include them as struck productions. Films and scripted TV shows that didn’t sign Interim Agreements with SAG-AFTRA will remain dark until that strike is settled as well.
RELATED: SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreements: Full List Of Movies & TV Series
All attention will now turn to ratifying the WGA deal and getting SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP back to the bargaining table to work out a deal to end the actors’ strike, which has now been going on for 70 days.
Details of the WGA’s tentative agreement haven’t been released yet but will be revealed by the guild in advance of the membership ratification votes. Pay raises and streaming residuals have been key issues for the guild, along with AI and writers room staffing levels.
Hollywood and the entertainment industry can breathe just a little easier today, but economists estimated that the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have cost California’s economy some $5 billion.
Anthony D’Alessandro, Dominic Patten and Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.