After the five-month-long writers strike 2023, the Late Night Shows return to the screen as writers get back to work.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon by NBC, Jimmy Kimmel Live! by ABC, and The Late Show by Stephen Colbert by CBS were the first shows to go off air as the Hollywood Writer’s Strike began.
The show hosts seemed to be in good spirits as they stepped on the stage in front of the live audience for their Late Night Show taping.
Although the shows will not host any actors because of the ongoing SAG Strike, due to an ongoing labor dispute between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP, the actors have abandoned their work, but the talk show hosts are bringing in musicians for the time being along with sports celebrities.
Jimmy Fallon shared bits of behind-the-scenes from his first night after the strike and was happy to meet all the crew as well as the audience. The Tonight Show is set to host celebrities and guests all week long.
On Monday, October 2nd, The Tonight Show aired their first show after the 2023 Writer’s Guild Of America Strike and had John Mayor – a musical guest, and Matthew McConaughey as their guests.
Stephen Colbert is also back with The Late Show as he took the stage in front of an audience that kept chanting his name. He blew a kiss towards them and said “It’s good to be back”.
Colbert had his guests ready for week on The Late Show after the strike as Neil deGrasse Tyson and a musical guest Louis Cato joined him on Monday.
Jimmy Kimmel is back to the show after 150 days of break and we couldn’t be more happier. Jimmy walks out on the stage of Jimmy Kimmel Live! to a silent audience admiring him and he says,” Oh, I figured there’d be applause, no?” and the audience laughs and gives him a round of applause.
Jimmy Kimmel had the first guests of his night on Monday. The guests included Arnold Schwarzenegger and a musical guest Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.
The audience was all as excited to see their favorite shows again as they were to know that the writers of such amazing shows were offered more than just minimum wage and a threat from AI.
WGA’s Three-year Agreement to end Writers Strike 2023:
The strike came to an end thankfully after the Writer’s Guild of America reached an agreement on a three-year contract with an alliance with the industry’s biggest studios, production companies, and streaming services.
Last month, the resumption of talks in the writer’s strike went poorly. But last week when the talks resumed, it was only a week before they reached an agreement.
The agreement with the writer’s union took place on Tuesday night, bringing the industry back from a historic halt in production, even though it’s only the writers.
The three-year agreement with the producers, agencies, and streaming services is a big win because it guarantees all that the writers were fighting for – compensation, employment length, staff size, and control of AI, matching the demand or nearly equaling it.
Actor’s SAG-AFTRA Strike:
Even though the Late Night Shows have returned, they will have significant limits on their guest lists as the SAG Strike goes on. Actors will not be allowed to appear on shows to promote their projects if the movies and shows are for the studios or agencies that are subject to the strike.
But there are exceptions such as, Matthew McConaughey appearing on The Tonight Show to promote his children’s book, “Just Because”.
Actors walked off their jobs for many of the same reasons as writers. SAG-AFTRA leader said that they would look closely at the gains and compromises of the WGA deal but declare that their demands would remain the same as they were when the strike began.
