Topline The Writers Guild of America strike is officially coming to an end after nearly six months, and shows are beginning to set their return dates, with network late-night shows and HBO talk shows eager to return to their slots within just days.
The Daily Show is set to return on October 16 with rotating guest hosts. (Photo by Jason … [+] Kempin/Getty Images for Comedy Central)
Getty Images for Comedy Central Timeline SEPTEMBER 29Bill Maher announced the return of his HBO show, Real Time With Bill Maher, just days after a tentative agreement was reached, tweeting, “See you Friday night!”
OCTOBER 1Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO’s version of a weekly late-night show, will return to its regular time slot—Sunday nights at 11 p.m.—with a new episode this weekend.
OCTOBER 2The four major network late-night shows—Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert—will all return the Monday following the strike’s end, October 2. The hosts jointly announced the return of their shows on the Instagram account for Strikeforce Five, a podcast the four hosts—and John Oliver—started to raise money for their staffs during the strike.
OCTOBER 16The Daily Show announced it will return on October 16, though it still won’t have a permanent host. Since Trevor Noah left the show last year, Comedy Central has been rotating through guest hosts—and it will continue to do so until a permanent host takes over, which Deadline reports is expected next year.
Surprising Fact Maher faced stiff backlash from writers after he announced plans to restart his show during the strike without writers on September 22, saying while he sympathizes with their cause, there are other people who need to go back to work. But he ultimately reversed course when negotiations between the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers picked back up.
Key Background The WGA went on strike at the beginning of May, and SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ guild, joined them in striking shortly after, in mid-July. The guilds had similar reasons for striking, largely focused around wage increases, higher residual payments for streaming platform shows and protections around the use of artificial intelligence. The unions argued the streaming era greatly lessened earning opportunities for both writers and actors because reruns on streaming platforms didn’t guarantee residuals and often had shorter and less frequent seasons. Together, the strikes shut down production on most scripted TV shows and many movie productions. The Writers’ Guild came to an agreement with AMPTP in late September when they returned to the bargaining table for the first time since mid-August. The tentative deal boosts writers’ pay, requires shows to hire a minimum number of writers and offers bonuses for high-viewership streaming shows—a major concession for streaming platforms, which have historically avoided automatically paying writers more for hits. It also prevents the use of AI for writing or rewriting material and doesn’t allow studios to make writers use it, though writers can use AI to aid their work if the studio allows it.
Further ReadingMORE FROM FORBESHollywood Writers Strike Ends: Deal Finalized After 148 Day Work StoppageBy Ana FaguyMORE FROM FORBESWriters Strike Deal: Here’s When Daytime TV, Late-Night TV And More May ReturnBy Molly Bohannon