r/americandad • u/DemiFiendRSA • May 12 '23

Seth MacFarlane & Showrunners Exit ‘American Dad’ Until Striking WGA Gets New Contract News

https://deadline.com/2023/05/writers-strike-seth-macfarlane-exits-family-guy-american-dad-wga-showrunners-1235365362/
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u/Massive_Durian296 The Phantom of the Telethon May 12 '23

I think the "powers that be" forget just how much the strike back in 07-08 had everyone over a fkn barrell. like there were huge, long hiatuses of top tv shows. idk why they think that wont happen again.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '23

It's almost certainly going to happen again. I know that the writers are winning these p.r. battles on social media, but the producers and studios have the upper hand in these negotiations by a lot. Television series are costing more and making less than they ever have; many distributors and studios have actually been outright taking losses over these series for years. Before the merger of Warner Bros. + Discovery, HBO, probably the most elite channel in all of television history, was literally on the brink of total financial collapse because everything they make costs so damn much. All of this means that it's going to be incredibly difficult for the writers to make the case during these negotiations (or during any potential court fights that might erupt from this process) that the studios are capable of paying more than they already are. All that being said, the studios and distributors themselves want to pay their writers rooms what basically amounts to part time salaries and classify them as gigs or per day work. They have to find some kind of tenable middle ground in all of this, and given the MASSIVE distance between the parties involved, nobody should expect that they're going to find it anytime soon.