Small Screen: Long-Awaited Max Reveal, WGA Strike Vote
Broadcast: Non-Evil Twin has cast Christina Anthony (Mixed-ish), Ray Santiago (Ash vs. Evil Dead), and Melanie J. Newby (Halt & Catch Fire) as series regulars alongside Amber Ruffin. The series, written by Ruffin and Kenny Smith, will feature Ruffin in the dual roles of Angie and Amber, two sisters with completely opposite personalities. Angie runs her Fortune 500 company AngieCorps with an iron fist, equal parts bitter and ruthless. Soon Amber, a kind-hearted pushover, is forced to step in as CEO for her polar-opposite sister, and must quickly learn the ins and outs of running a business. Anthony plays Angie’s assistant Christina, a sharp wit who is easily annoyed by her peers. Santiago plays Tony, a good-hearted but problematically blunt marketing VP who is fired by Angie but loved by Amber. Newby will portray Amy, Angie’s cellmate, who is “tough-as-nails” and treats Angie just like everyone else, threatening her inflated self-image. Anthony most recently appeared as a series regular on Mixed-ish and starred alongside Kristen Bell in The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window. Santiago is known for his roles in Ash vs. Evil Dead as well as Bad Judge, Touch, Raising Hope, and Dexter. He has also appeared on the big screen in Trashfire, Sex Ed, In Time, American Son, Meet the Fockers, and Girl Fight. Newby has appeared on Halt & Catch Fire, The Resident, Doom Patrol, and The Ms. Pat Show, and also appeared in the feature film Shortcomings, which premiered at Sundance in 2023.
Zoe Chao and Indira Varma have been added to the voice cast for DC’s animated series Creature Commandos. The series, which will run seven episodes, is part of the initial 10 film and TV projects announced in January by DC Studios co-chairmen and CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran which connect in the DCU Chapter 1 phase Gods and Monsters. Creature Commandos will follow the creation of a black ops team from a group of prisoners, and will serve as a precursor to the Suicide Squad in the DC universe mythology. Chao will voice Nina Mazursky, and Varma will voice The Bride. No premiere date has been announced.
British prison drama Time will return for a second season with newly announced cast members including Tamara Lawrance. The The Silent Twins star will play Abi, the third of a trio of prisoners who arrive at Carlingford Prison together. Friends Orla (Joie Whittaker), Kelsey (The Last of Us’s Bella Ramsey), and Abi must acclimate quickly to the prison, where danger is pervasive but a close-knit community flourishes. The drama is written by Jimmy McGovern (Broken) and Helen Black (Life and Death in the Warehouse), directed by Andrea Harkin (The Confessions of Fannie Langton), and produced by Carmel Maloney and McGovern, with Priscilla Parish, Michael Parke and Andrew Morrissey for BBC Studios as well as Lucy Richer for the BBC. Time will be available on BBC One and iPlayer.
Amandla Jahava
Cable: Minnie Driver and Amandla Jahava have been set to star in FX’s new Peep Show pilot. Yana Gorskaya will direct the pilot, a reboot of the eponymous British comedy series that aired on Channel 4 from 2003 to 2015. Peep Show’s official logline reads, “Taking inspiration from the original UK series Peep Show and its unique narrative format, the pilot follows the relationship between a long-suffering assistant (Jahava) and her boss (Driver), an emotionally unstable tech entrepreneur.” Jahava, who graduated from Yale with an MFA in 2019, has starred in How to Make Love to a Black Woman and DMZ, and has a recurring role in Issa Rae’s HBO Max series Rap Sh*t. Driver, who starred in FX’s The Riches, is best known for her work on the big screen, including her role in Good Will Hunting for which she was received an Oscar nomination. She has also appeared in Circle of Friends, Rosaline, and Amazon’s Cinderella. The pilot will mark the fifth time a U.S. Peep Show remake has tried its luck, after Fox, Spike TV, Starz, and a previous effort at FX were unsuccessful.
Streaming: Schmigadoon!’s Jamie Camil has been cast on Season 3 of Apple’s Acapulco. Camil will guest star as Alejandro, the brother of a wealthy Mexican man and a new co-owner of the Las Colinas resort. Alejandro endeavors to make life miserable for Diane Davies (Jessica Collins), the co-owner of the resort. In Season 3 of Acapulco, an older Maximo (Eugenio Derbez) returns to Las Colinas to find that he doesn’t recognize his old haunts. Meanwhile, in 1985, younger Maximo (Enrique Arrizon) finds that his success comes at the price of placing his relationships in limbo. Season 3 wil also feature Fernando Carsa (Memo), Damián Alcázar (Don Pablo), Camila Perez (Julia), Chord Overstreet (Chad), Vanessa Bauche (Nora), Regina Reynoso (Sara), Raphael Alejandro (Hugo), Jessica Collins (Diane), Rafael Cebrián (Hector), Carlos Corona (Esteban) and Regina Orozco (Lupe). Seasons 1 and 2 of Acapulco are currently available on Apple TV+.
Stephen Rider (Daredevil) has been cast on Max’s It prequel series Welcome to Derry. Though his role is still shrouded in secrecy, it has been confirmed that Rider will be a series regular. The logline for Welcome to Derry reads, “Set in the world of Stephen King’s It universe, Welcome to Derry is based on King’s It novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films It and It Chapter Two.” Rider is also known for his roles in The Butler and The Host.
Amazon Prime Video has canceled A League of Their Own after two seasons. The second season will run for four episodes on the platform. A League of Their Own was based on Penny Marshall’s 1992 film, telling the story of women in the man’s world of professional baseball. Season 1 dealt closely with issues of race and sexuality. The series starred Abbi Jacobson, Chante Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Roberta Colindrez, and Nick Offerman. Amazon and MGM Studios head of television Vernon Sanders said of the final season,
“We’re deeply proud of the work that Abbi, Will, the cast and crew have done reimagining A League of Their Own, which has produced an incredibly loyal fan base as well as achieved numerous, well-deserved recognitions and accolades. After hearing what Abbi, Will and the writing team have planned for the new story within this wonderful series, we are excited for our fans to see what comes next.”
FX has released the trailer for Class of ‘09, a limited series suspense thriller following a class of FBI agents navigating the era of AI in the US government. Brian Tyree Henry and Kate Mara will star. The official synopsis reads,
“Spanning multiple decades and told across interweaving timelines, the series examines the nature of justice, humanity and the choices we make that ultimately define our lives and legacy.”
Mara plays undercover agent Poet, and Henry will play Tayo, a bureau supervisor. The trailer shows Black Mirror-esque visuals, with futuristic technology, booby-trapped rooms, walls of mirrored monitors, and high-tech eyewear, suggesting a sci-fi tinge to the futuristic thriller. Class of ‘09 will premiere May 10 on Hulu.
Oscar winning actress Octavia Spencer will lead Lost Women of Highway 20 for Max and Discovery ID. The October Films series will investigate a series of crimes that occurred on a deserted stretch of Highway 20 in the state of Oregon between the 1970s and 1990s. The stories in which the series finds its basis are all true – Marlene Gabrielsen, Kaye Turner, Rachanda Pickle, Melissa Sanders and Sheila Swanson were murdered, assaulted, or disappeared during those years on that stretch of the highway. Lost Women of Highway 20 will premiere later in 2023.
Freeridge, an On My Block spinoff, has been canceled at Netflix after only one season. The eight episode coming-of-age comedy starred Keyla Monterroso Mejia as Glora, Bryana Salaz as Ines, Ciara Riley Wilson as Demi, and Tenzing Norgay Trainor as Cameron. Rival sisters Gloria and Ines, along with their friends Demi and Cameron, must work together to reverse a curse they release after finding a mysterious box. Some stars of the original series On My Block were also featured in the ill-fated spinoff, including Paula Garcés as Geny Martinez, Eric Gutierrez as Ruben Martinez, Eme Ikwuakor as Dwayne Turner, and Raushanah Simmons as Fran Turner. The series was executive produced by Lauren Iungerich alongside Jamie Uyeshiro, Eddie Gonzalez, Jeremy Haft, and Jamie Dooner.
Superstar rapper Nicki Minaj will executive produce and star in the new animated series Lady Danger for Amazon’s Freevee. The series, based on the eponymous Dark Horse comic book by Alex de Campi, will also be executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Carlton Jordan, and Crystle Roberson. Lady Danger is set in the year 2075, following a government agent who discovers a dangerous secret. When she is left for dead by her team, she is resurrected as Lady Danger, an “afrofuturistic ass-kicking Agent of B.O.O.T.I (Bureau of Organized Terrorism Intervention).” Lady Danger fights bad guys out to destroy the Earth itself, all the while keeping her true identity under wraps. The series is not nearly the first for Jackson, who has produced a heaping handful of content under his banner G-Unit Film & Television, including the Power franchise and its spinoffs, the Starz series BMF and its spinoffs and accompanying documentary, and the boxing drama Fightland. Minaj has appeared on television and the big screen before, voicing Pinky in The Angry Birds Movie 2 and Sugilite in Steven Universe, and appearing in the films Barbershop: The Next Cut and The Other Woman. A release date for Lady Danger has yet to be announced.
Never Have I Ever will premiere its fourth and final season on Netflix this June. The coming-of-age comedy follows first-generation Indian American teenager Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) as she navigates her penchant for overachieving, short fuse, and many crushes. This season, Devi’s object of desire is a boy named Ethan (Michael Cimino), who arrives at her high school as her previous crush Paxton (Darren Barnet) leaves for college. Netflix has teased a wedding between two mystery characters this season – fan speculation seems to lead to Devi’s cousin Kamala (Richa Moorjani) and her partner Manish Kulkarni (Utkarsh Ambudkar) – as well as other twists and turns in Devi’s life and milieu. Never Have I Ever is executive produced and created by comedian Mindy Kaling with Lang Fisher as showrunner. The last season will premiere on Netflix June 8th.
James Wan will produce a new thriller for Amazon Studios based on Catherine Ryan Howard’s 2021 best selling novel 56 Days. Lisa Zwerling (ER, When We Rise) and Karyn Usher (Bones, Prison Break) will adapt the book for the screen, and James Wan’s Atomic Monster will produce alongside Amazon Studios. Per the logline,
“56 Days is a psychological thriller that tells the story of an intense, erotic romance that turns deadly. It follows two young professionals, striking out on their own in a new city, who are entangled quickly in a charged relationship that leads to a powerful intimacy that is soon cracked open by their secrets … and to murder.”
Wan’s Atomic Monster has produced I Know What You Did Last Summer for Amazon Prime, MacGyver for CBS, and is working on a series for Peacock based on Robert McCammon’s novel Stinger. A working title, casting, and premiere information for the new thriller have yet to be announced.
Chris Pang of Crazy Rich Asians has been added to the recurring cast of Hulu’s Interior Chinatown. Pang will reunite with Crazy Rich Asians costar Jimmy O. Yang, who stars as protagonist Willis Wu. Pang will play Older Brother, the “charming and talented” sibling of lead Willis Wu (Yang) who went missing years earlier, leading to tumult within their family. When Detective Lana Lee (Chloe Bennet) presents Willis with new information on his brother’s case, he seizes the opportunity to investigate his brother’s vanishing. Interior Chinatown is based on the National Book Award-winning novel by Charles Yu, who will also executive produce the show. Interior Chinatown is being described as a comedic drama, and counts among its stars Ronny Chieng (as Fatty Choi), Sullivan Jones and Lisa Gilroy (detectives Turner and Green), Archie Kao (Uncle Wong), Tzi Ma (Willis’ father Joe) and Diana Lin (Willis’ mother Lily). In addition to Crazy Rich Asians, Pang is known for his roles in Blade of the 47 Ronin, Palm Springs, and Netflix and Universal’s Charlie’s Angels reboot.
Monique - YouTube
Industry: Stand-up comedian and actress Mo’Nique has filed a lawsuit against Paramount and CBS, cleaning the companies owe her millions in royalties for her UPN series The Parkers. The show, which ran for five seasons from 1999 to 2004, is no stranger to such lawsuits: last June, The Parkers creators Ralph Farquhar, Sara Finney-Johnson and Vida Spears filed a suit alleging that CBS had engaged in malfeasance to inflate expenses and suppress payment. The case was settled out of court five months later. Mo’Nique’s lawsuit echoes many of the claims made in the creators’ suit, adding that UPN was allowed to pay a below-market rate to distribute the show and that cable distribution packages were priced at below-market rates. According to her suit, Mo’Nique was supposed to receive 2.5% of adjusted gross receipts. It alleges,
“While the series has proven to be a major financial success for its producers and distributors, the series’ talent have not been permitted to share in the fruits of that success.”
The Parkers is currently available for streaming in its entirety on Netflix.
Sam Levinson’s Euphoria spinoff The Idol will screen out-of-Competition at Cannes this year, Delegate Thierry Frémaux confirmed. Lead and co-creator Abel Tesfaye (known for producing music under his stage name The Weeknd), who is a festival regular, and Lily-Rose Depp are expected to be seen on the Croisette for the premiere. The Idol is a television series on HBO, making it an unusual choice for Cannes, though Frémaux is confident in and excited for the choice. Set in Los Angeles, the show tells the story of a romance between a pop singer and an LA club owner who also leads a secret cult. Alongside Tesfaye and Depp, the cast includes big names like Suzanna Son, Troye Sivan, Moses Sumney, Jane Adams, Dan Levy, Jennie Ruby Jane, Eli Roth, Rachel Sennot, Hari Nef, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Mike Dean, and Blackpink singer Jennie Kim. It is unconfirmed whether Kim will also attend the fest, but her pull as a K-Pop superstar would undoubtedly be a primary attraction for attendees and onlookers alike. Sources have not confirmed how many episodes of the series will screen at Cannes. Cannes Film Festival will occur May 16th through 27th in Cannes, France.
After months of speculation, Warner Bros. Discovery has revealed the branding and name change for their new streaming service Max, which will join HBO Max and Discovery+ into one service. At a press presentation last Wednesday, WBD CEO David Zaslav called the Max streaming service “one to watch” after nearly a year of press coverage and promotion. At the event, Zaslav said that WBD will announce plans for live sports coverage on Max “in a few months,” revealed Max’s official launch date of May 23, and called kids & family content a “priority” for the service. Most HBO Max users will experience what President and CEO of global streaming and games JB Perrette calls a “seamless” transition to the new sans-HBO Max. Others will go through a two-part sign in process to migrate to Max. Perette was emphatic that HBO not be associated with Max, saying:
“HBO is not TV, HBO is HBO. It needs to stay that way, which is why we will privilege it in the product experience and also not push it to the breaking point by forcing it to take on the full breadth of this new content proposition, had we kept the name in the service brand. And by doing so, we’ll better elevate and showcase our unparalleled array of other content and brands that will be key to broadening the appeal of this enhanced product.”
Max will carry content from the Food Network, TLC, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Discovery, ID, TNT, Adult Swim, and TBS, among others, as well as films from DC and a new Big Bang Theory spinoff. Ad-lite Max will be priced at $9.99 per month, while ad-free Max will be $15.99 per month, the same as HBO Max. “Ultimate” ad-free Max will be $19.99 per month. At the end of the hours-long event, which included a litany of announcements about new shows, series, spinoffs, and movies, Zaslov concluded by saying, “We’re on a mission to be the one to watch. And as you’ve seen today in Max, we’ve got the goods.”
Director Erica Watson has signed with M88 for representation. Watson is most known for directing the final episodes of Hulu’s Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning series The Dropout, following the rise and fall of Theranos con artist Elizabeth Holmes (played in the series by Amanda Seyfried). She has also recently directed two episodes of King Shaka. Earlier in her career, Warson directed episodes of TNT’s Snowpiercer and OWN’s David Makes Man, and has worked on Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s Power franchise. Watson has also put her name on Gossip Girl, All Rise, The L Word: Generation Q, and Krypton, among others. Watson earned her MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2014, and graduated from the Sony Diversity Directing Program. She was an artist-in-residence at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, as well as a directing fellow for Film Independent’s Project Involve. In 2015, she was awarded the Sundance Knight Fellowship. Her short film Roubado has been screened at several film festivals around the world.
AudienceXpress, part of Comcast Advertising, has launched a new analytic tool providing audience targeting and measurement for multi-screen television campaigns. AudienceXpress will allow advertisers to more accurately and efficiently target audiences, with tools that support campaigns from planning through inception to follow-up. AudienceXpress Chief Revenue Officer Katy Loria said of the new service,
“In developing this new solution, we listened to what advertisers are telling us and the result is an offering that addresses their needs. Heading into the 2023 upfronts, brands are looking for scale, high quality premium inventory and real-time, data-driven insights so that they can improve the user experience and accurately deliver on business goals. We aimed to solve for all of these needs with this new solution and look forward to what it can do for the industry.”
The tool’s functions find their basis in Comcast’s ad exposure data from more than 15 million households, and advertisers can integrate their own data for customization.
German film and television distribution and licensing company Telepool is moving into lead production. The company, which is owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Entertainment Venture, will be serving as lead production on upcoming movies and series, as revealed by CEO Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann. Higuchi-Zitzmann herself has worked for several companies in distribution and production roles, most recently at Pantaleon Films in Germany. She has worked on RTL Television’s Herzogpark and StudioCanal international box office success My Blind Date With Life. CEO of Westbrook Ko Yada says of the announcement,
“We are thrilled to have found a leader who shares in our mission of connecting people through globally resonant storytelling. Yoko brings to Telepool over 25 years of experience — at some of the most respected companies in the industry — driving content production and distribution on a global scale.”
Higuchi-Zitzmann will also be leading an expansion of Westbrook’s reach to European and other global markets, for which it will work closely with Telepool. She sees ownership of Telepool by Westbrook as an advantage, saying,
“I am in production meetings every week with my excellent production colleagues at Westbrook. And it’s not only about strategy, it’s about specific projects. So, for example, if I discover a great novel in Germany, which could be something for a U.S. star, just to give you an example, I don’t have to knock at the door of the agent of a superstar, I call my colleagues, because they have direct access to the talents. So, this is a huge advantage. And also, we are exchanging know-how, creativity, scripts, ideas, and at a very high level.”
Telepool stands on five “major pillars,” being international film sales and TV distribution through Global Screen, licensing and theatrical distribution in Germany, home entertainment distribution in Germany, TV licensing in Switzerland, and production. Higuchi-Zitzmann called production “the most interesting in the future,” saying that she is on the hunt for projects to lead produce in the immediate term. Production, she says, is a growth area for Telepool.
“By creating your own IPs and brands and scripts, you can stand out in the film and TV industry. I have a huge network of the best directors, showrunners and actors, international and in Germany, and through Westbrook I have this network also in the U.S.A., with first-class creatives. So, we are in a good position in the market to grow our co-productions and in the long run to start our own productions.”
She says that it’s the “quality of the projects and the quality of the people” that have allowed Telepool to thrive for 60 years, and says she is humbled and grateful to be at the helm of a steadily successful company with even more room to grow.
Screen Australia has published a new study on the state of the country’s on-screen diversity. Seeing Ourselves 2: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Australian TV Drama reveals that while onscreen diversity has increased over the past 6 years, there is still ample room for improvement. The study looked at the diversity of main characters in 361 Australian scripted TV series and online dramas that were broadcast between 2016 and 2021, data which it compared with the Australian population and its own previous report from 2016. The report showed that representation for First Nations people has increased from 4.8% of characters in 2016 to 7.2% in 2021; representation for disabled people increased from 3.6% to 6.6% of characters; LGBTQI+ people from 4.5% to 7.4%, and non-European people from 6.9% to 16%. The report said, however, that “a number of Australia’s communities remain under-represented on-screen compared to population benchmarks, and in particular disability representation remains critically low.” The report found that almost 75% of programs did not feature any disabled main characters (down from 90% in 2016). While 53% of Australians have Anglo-Celtic ancestry, that group comprises 71% of main characters in the study (down from 82% in 2016). Non-European main characters have more than doubled, though they still don’t make up the comparative population benchmark of 25%. “There should be more characters who are: Indian, Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese, there should also be more characters from European backgrounds who are not Anglo-Celtic, for example, characters who are German, Dutch or Italian,” the report notes. Angela Bates, head of Screen Australia’s First Nations department, said,
“For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to see ourselves represented on screen in shows such as Mystery Road, Total Control, and Black Comedy is powerful. This result shows good progress and it’s not by accident – it represents years of advocacy and consistent hard work to ensure our practitioners feel supported and are afforded opportunities in an industry that hasn’t always been accessible. It’s proof of what’s possible when we are empowered to tell stories from our perspective.”
The report found that children’s programs tended to have a higher level of cultural diversity, though a much lower level of LGBTQI+ and disability diversity compared to general TV titles. Despite number shifting in positive directions in race, age, gender, and disability diversity in both children’s and general titles, there is still work to be done. Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason said of the report,
“The wheels of change are in motion but there is a lot more work to do to achieve diversity on our screens that is both authentic and creatively and commercially fulfilling.”
Writers guild of america
Strike Watch: The topic of residuals has proven to be a focal point in the ongoing negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, who held their most recent round of talks toward a new contract on April 14. To hear the WGA tell it, the issue can be boiled down to “our employers [having] increased their profits by tens of billions, [while embracing] business practices that have slashed our compensation and residuals and undermined our working conditions.” However, WGA West’s annual report shows that for the fiscal year ending in March 2022, total collected residuals hit an “all-time high” in 2021, increasing by 48.2% from 2011 to 2021. Assistant executive director at the WGA West Charles Slocum attributes this rise to the simple fact that more content is being produced, and says that the “slashing” of residuals is occurring on a “per-program basis,” with streaming being the most egregious offender.
“In streaming, the companies have not agreed to pay residuals at the same level as broadcast, or the same reward-for-success as they have traditionally paid in broadcast. If you write for a streamer, you get two residuals payments – one for domestic streaming and one for foreign streaming. It’s a set amount of money. If it’s a big hit, you do not get paid more residuals in streaming, whereas in the broadcast model, you do because of its success. That’s the sense that residuals were slashed – they have not agreed to a success factor when a program is made for streaming.”
For this reason, the guild is seeking a residuals “premium” in its negotiations – a premium for successful streaming shows as well as one for streaming showrunners that accurately reflects their experience level. “You can’t have a showrunner working for the same rate as a story editor,” says Slocum. “If they are going to pay more experienced writers at minimum, then there has to be a higher minimum for those writers.”
Essentially, he says, what is needed is a “scale for experience,” which is standard across industries. Additionally, the rise in popularity of streaming, where half of series writers are now employed, has led to a depression in pay.
“At every job title, more writers work at MBA minimum now than a decade ago. In the 2013-14 season, 33% of all TV series writers were paid minimum; now half are working at minimum. Increasing numbers of seasoned writers, including showrunners, are now paid no over-scale premium for their years of experience. Median weekly writer-producer pay has declined 4% over the last decade. Adjusting for inflation, the decline is 23%.”
The numbers show that “new media,” the largest residuals category, accounts for 45.2% of the total residuals collected in the report year, up from 36.7% the previous year. Total TV residuals also increased by nearly 60% between 2011 and 2021, with theatrical film residuals increasing by 31% over that time period. New media reuse of theatrical films (think a streaming service offering a movie that was once in theaters), now the largest residuals market for films, increased by about 433% from 2016 to 2021. In the case of the small screen, residuals from streaming of traditional TV series increased by 162.4% from 2016 to 2021, while new media reuse of high-budget streaming shows increased nearly 6,000%. According to the studios, streaming platforms have been a “boon” to writers, who they say are making residuals on series for which they would otherwise not have continued to receive income, and are “benefiting from greater opportunity for writing assignments with more producers greenlighting more projects than ever before.” A canceled series, for example, would previously have meant the end of a writer seeing residuals; with the advent of streaming, some writers still get paid for the continued hosting of the series’ extant seasons. Despite these overall upward trends in earnings over the past 10 years, the guild’s data shows a decline in over-scale payments to writers. With so many writers working at scale, says Slocum, there must be a pay premium for experience. The guild’s members vote on April 17th to approve a strike authorization, after which negotiations are expected to intensify. The guild’s current contract expires May 1.
In the midst of negotiations, WGA members have taken to social media to share their experiences with low pay and lack of opportunities as well as how they voted on the strike authorization. One writer revealed they were forced to steal food from the cafeteria at Neflix to feed their family after working “many months for free.” Another had to turn to food stamps even after selling a studio feature and optioning two pilots. Shadow and Bone’s Erin Conley revealed that she hasn’t seen the inside of a writers’ room in over a year.
“My situation is not unique, I have many friends in worse or similar spots. 2021 was a life-changing year for me. In the span of about 3 months, I got my first co-write and got staffed, after a decade of underpaid assistant work. That year I made nearly 3x as much $ as I EVER had. I had always heard ‘the 2nd job is harder’ but living it still feels cruel – to reach the top of the mountain and realize it means nothing for continued job or financial security, for buying a house or starting a family. My staff writer gig was just that: a gig.”
Queen Sugar’s Lisa Morales told reporters,
“It’s ridiculous that as a showrunner in a mini room, at a major network, I made as much as I did as a Story Editor, the minimum, despite having years more of experience. It’s unsustainable. The system is broken.”
Fuller House’s Bryan Behar wrote,
“What my guild is asking for is neither radical nor novel. They just want writing to once again be a sustainable career option for those who do it.”
Deanna Shumaker, a CSI and Blindspot alum, posted a lengthy and candid thread on Twitter explaining that her low earnings over the last 6 years made her ineligible to even vote on the strike.
“I’m not eligible to vote in this campaign because I haven’t made enough MBA covered earnings in the last 6 years. Because the jobs are too scarce.”
Voting on the strike authorization began on April 11 and concluded on April 17th at noon. Sources say that the WGA and AMPTP are “far away” from a deal despite some recent progress.