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Your shows are safe: WGA reaches deal to avoid another writers strike

Phew! The final three episodes of 'Saturday Night Live' will air as planned.

Laura Prudom

on May 2, 2017

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

It went down to the wire, but the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have reached a new three-year deal in their contract negotiations, avoiding a possible writers' strike that could've shut down production on countless projects and cost the industry millions. This is especially good news for fans of late night shows like Saturday Night Live, which would've been the first to have been affected by a work stoppage.

The negotiations stretched past the midnight deadline, with official word of a deal announced after 1 a.m. PT on Tuesday morning.

In a letter to its members, the WGA announced a "tentative agreement" with the AMPTP that they estimate will give the guild an additional $130 million over the three years of the contract.

The new deal includes higher contributions from the studios for the WGA's health plan, which has been operating at a deficit, and securing more money for writers who work beyond 2.4 weeks on an episode, allowing scribes to work on limited series and short-order seasons without feeling short-changed.

Read the letter from the WGA negotiating committee to guild members below.

Your Negotiating Committee is pleased to report that we have reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP that we can recommend for ratification.

In it, we made gains in minimums across the board – as well as contribution increases to our Health Plan that should ensure its solvency for years to come. And we further expanded our protections in Options and Exclusivity.

We also made unprecedented gains on the issue of short seasons in television, winning a definition (which has never before existed in our MBA) of 2.4 weeks of work for each episodic fee. Any work beyond that span will now require additional payment for hundreds of writer-producers.

We won a 15% increase in Pay TV residuals, roughly $15 million in increases in High-Budget SVOD residuals, and, for the first time ever, residuals for comedy-variety writers in Pay TV.

And, also for the first time ever, job protection on Parental Leave.

Did we get everything we wanted? No. Everything we deserve? Certainly not. But because we had the near-unanimous backing of you and your fellow writers, we were able to achieve a deal that will net this Guild’s members $130 million more, over the life of the contract, than the pattern we were expected to accept.

That result, and that resolve, is a testament to you, your courage, and your faith in us as your representatives.

We will, of course, provide more details in the next few days. But until then, we just wanted to thank you – and congratulate you. Your voices were indeed heard.

Your 2017 Negotiating Committee

Chip Johannessen, Co-Chair

Chris Keyser, Co-Chair

Billy Ray, Co-Chair

Alfredo Barrios, Jr.

Amy Berg

Adam Brooks

Patti Carr

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