If You Enjoy The Work, Then Pay The Workers
May Day 2023 signals first strike by the Writers Guild of America since 2007
End-stage capitalism operates on the principle that the C-suite and Wall Street demand more and more profits so they can hoard more and more of the profits, despite the fact that they only profit thanks to the workers who made the work.
But I’ll let a former stand-up comedian who scored one of those legendary JFL deals back in the day, and later co-created Leverage (as well as co-writing the screenplays for Catwoman and Transformers) explain why the Writers Guild of America (WGA) had to go on strike this morning after failing to reach a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
Here’s John Rogers with the thread:
1) Something (very stupid) you’re going to see over the next weeks are people arguing that screenwriters are being unreasonable. “Times have changed”. No. Times WERE changed. By SOMEBODY. By PEOPLE, making CHOICES.
2) There’s an unfortunate tendency in modern American thought to write about economies, or markets, like they’re the weather. Like they’re natural phenomena, you know, “ market forces”, the invisible hand, etc, shit just happens, can’t be helped!
3) Bullshit. Economies, markets, are products of human thought. They are shaped by the rules we place upon them and distorted by the will of those who operate within them.
4) The Hollywood market is currently being distorted by choices made by powerful people with considerable agency. The most foolish of these choices is to no longer make the metric of success be … well, success.
5) The bosses of these companies have stopped caring about whether the shows and movies are profitable — because THEY ARE, we know they are, the companies have made between $28-30 BILLION in profit — PROFIT — *every year for the last five years*.
6) They’ve decided to chase the classic techbro, financialization metric, the mania of modern Wall Street — growth. Nonstop growth. Something you can base stock options on. But as the man says, the only thing that grows forever is cancer, and even that eventually kills the host.
7) The new robber barons of Hollywood are on a suicide run. They’ll extract as much wealth out of the system as they can before it crashes, and they’ll beat up the workforce as much as they need to to create “savings” to make Wall Street happy, to stretch out the run.
8) THIS IS NOT NEW. This is classic vulture capitalism, this is what happened to K-mart, Toys R’ US, this is airline stock buybacks, it’s just moved from hard infrastructure and retail to the information and entertainment world.
9) So this struggle may seem like a very specialized conflict, between a very small Guild of unusual professionals and their very specific employers. But this is 100% part of the larger madness that’s drowning the modern economy. It’s all the same fight, this one’s just nerdier.
10) The WGA is just lucky — and not really lucky, we’re benefitting from 90 years of other writers sacrificing for us — that we happen to be organized enough and powerful enough, when our turn came, to draw a line.
11) (Spoiler alert for other unions and workers -- your time will always come)
12) There’s a well-established, profitable system to make quality entertainment that keeps everybody happy, healthy, paid, and in shape to make their best possible work, for the delight of millions of audience members. That system is being gutted, thanks to hubris and greed.
13) Man, I do not want to strike, None of us do. But if we don’t, mine is the last generation of screenwriters who will even have a chance to have a stable career.
14) We will damn all the screenwriters who come after us to a gig economy, with all that entails. I’ll go down swinging to stop that. I owe the writers who came before and those who come after.
15) See you on the line tomorrow, and every day, for as long as it takes. #WGAStrong
Here are the picketing locations for the WGA.
In other news…
Roy Wood Jr.’s White House Correspondence Dinner Speech
You may disagree with me about whether Roy Wood Jr. is the perfect person to host The Daily Show (although most of you agree, right?!?), but he’s definitely the right man for the job to address the White House Correspondents Association and the motley collection of famous people they persuaded to dine with them this past Saturday night in Washington, D.C. Because Wood studied and worked in journalism while starting his career in stand-up comedy, and comes from a journalism family. He knows and cares about what he speaks, and that informs his comedy in a way that can reach any audience. Even the cynical media.
As for the future of The Daily Show, well, obviously that’s all on hold now that the WGA has struck. Apologies to Dulcé Sloan, this week’s guest host!
My wild idea for TDS, tho…what if they gave hosting duties to four different people, with each of them getting one of the days? For hypothetical example: Mondays it’s The Daily Show with Roy Wood Jr., Tuesdays it’s The Daily Show with Leslie Jones, Wednesdays it’s The Daily Show with Ronny Chieng, Thursday’s it’s The Daily Show with Sarah Silverman, and then you wrap it up with Hell of a Week with Charlamagne tha God. Or what have you. Each host gets a week to prepare their own segments and signature bits, and the network benefits from having multiple marketing angles. Just a thought.
Speaking of Late-Night TV
Nothing quite says how dire the situation is for late-night TV comedy, WGA strike notwithstanding, than seeing all of the network guys rally around James Corden for this bit for Corden’s Late Late Show finale last week.
Brian Stelter wrote a take for LA Magazine about what Corden’s departure means for late-night TV, but Corden’s EP Ben Winston had some bones to pick, as he relayed to Matt Belloni on his podcast. As an aside first, though, kinda wild to hear Belloni repeatedly claim that Comedy Central’s ATmidnight (dang you Substack for making it dang near impossible to type the name of this show) was a “game show from 20 years ago” when 2013 was, in fact…only 10 years ago??!
Anyhow. Winston mostly took issue with how Stelter and conventional media looks at the profitability of TV in 2023. “I think that is looking at it through an entirely old lens….Of course, if we're looking simply at the commercials that are on at 12:37, then we're never going to be able to make back the money that this show has cost.But that's never from day one ever what this show wanted to do. At first we approached the digital age we embraced it. We never really looked at our ratings. We always look to our YouTube numbers.” They dropped the Adele Carpool Karaoke video four days before it aired on TV, allowing them to monetize millions of YouTube views while also driving up interest in the show through other clips online. They made bank on product placement with a Heineken bar in the studio, as well as by integrating other corporations into bits (just like the olden days of TV). They spun off three bits into their own TV shows: Carpool Karaoke, Drop The Mic, and Visual Suspect. They even sold a bunch of Carpool Karaoke Microphone kits in stores.
Winston still sees a future for late-night talkers, even if it might also exist in different forms on the streaming platforms, on YouTube, and on TikTok. He’s a bit unsure if any network is willing to develop and market a “new” host when they can just hire a big-enough name to attract audiences from the start.
As an “old” myself, it’s striking (ahem) to note that late-night shows have never been known for their monologues, but rather for their bits and their unscripted moments with guests — that’s been the case from Johnny Carson and David Letterman through today. Also, not for nothing, but how is CBS rebooting that Midnight show when it’s not airing at midnight?
Industry News and Notes
According to Nielsen data: Nate Bargatze: Hello World, became Amazon’s most popular Amazon Original comedy special thanks to chalking up 2.9 million views in February (previously, Jim Gaffigan’s Quality Time had attracted 2.5 million views in its first 28 days on Prime in 2019). Apparently Bargatze’s numbers were also good enough to top all other comedy specials on streamers in February (*excluding YouTube).
What else is new? NOTE: The WGA Strike puts much of this on hold, too…
Jason Reitman will make a movie for Sony based on the 1975 series debut of Saturday Night Live, based on a screenplay by Reitman and Gil Kenan which they wrote after interviewing living cast and crew from SNL
The Lucas Bros are writing a screenplay for Kid Cudi to star in a Sony movie, Hell Naw.
Netflix has ordered two more seasons of Big Mouth, which will close out in 2024 with season eight.
Dominic Russo, Jon Heder and Tony Cavalero’s animated comedy series, Space Junk, premieres May 19 online. The Web3 series includes one character voiced by AI. For what that’s worth.
Audible is leaning into UK comedians for new podcasts. Among them: Daisy May Cooper (Educating Daisy: guests try to convince her to read their favorite novels); Lolly Adefope (Lolly Adefope’s Fanmail talks to fans and celebs); Mo Gilligan (Mo Gilligan’s Spotlight stand-up showcases); and Dara Ó Briain (Timewasters: a panel show about wasting time).
Kumail Nanjiani and Elizabeth Banks are top-billed on the upcoming Universal/Illumination animated film about ducks, Migration.
Speaking of studios screwing the workers, Warner Bros.-produced CBS sitcom Bob ❤️ Abishola is moving into Season 5 with only its two leads as regulars. The rest of the cast was demoted to recurring roles.
In brighter news, the Television Academy Honors this year are honoring Prime Video’s As We See It, Netflix’s Mo, and HBO Max’s We’re Here.
John Krasinki’s forthcoming animated film, IF, will include the voices of Matt Damon, Jon Stewart, Emily Blunt, Maya Rudolph, Sam Rockwell, Sebastian Maniscalco, Christopher Meloni, Richard Jenkins, Awkwafina, Vince Vaughn, Krasinski, Ryan Reynolds, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Cailey Fleming, Louis Gossett Jr, Fiona Shaw, Alan S. Kim, Steve Carell, and Bobby Moynihan.
20th Century Fox wants to play Dodgeball again, and Vine Vaughn is cool with that.
Yvonne Orji has a new deal with Sony Pictures Television.
Dan Kopelman and Aaron Kaplan have set up multi-cam Beantown at CBS, if Cheers were a Boston coffeehouse in the 1770s.
Aidy Bryant’s next act? Starring in Lonely Hearts Club, a dramedy for Peacock based on an episode from the Crime Junkies podcast, and EP’d by Ari Aster.
Team Coco will have listeners hear Conan O’Brien, Robert Smigel, Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon unpacking the script to The Lost Hans & Franz Movie from SNL. The four-part podcast premieres May 17.
Adam McKay’s next movie for Netflix: Average Height, Average Build, starring Robert Pattinson as a serial killer lobbying politicians with Amy Adams to make murder easier.
Sony Pictures Television has optioned comedian Zach Zimmerson’s new essay collection, “Is it Hot in Here? (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth).”
Even at 100, Norman Lear keeps working. Lear along with EPs Andy Parker, Brent Miller, Rachel Davidson, Scott Hornbacher, received a 10-episode order from Netflix for The Corps, inspired by Greg Cope White’s memoir, “The Pink Marine,” about a gay teen who joins the Marines in 1990.
Last but certainly not least, Trevor Noah is getting back into late-night? Sorta. Noah will EP the U.S. adaptation of the long-running UK series, Mock the Week, for Amazon Freevee. Dan Patterson, one of Mock The Week’s co-creators, will EP the adaptation with Noah, with production not starting until 2024. Obviously.
Last Week’s Specials
New on Netflix
John Mulaney: Baby J (my review)
New on Amazon (for rent)
also re-release of Ryan Niemiller : Unarmed and Dangerous from earlier in the month
New on Dry Bar
Hoss Ridgeway: The Husky Chronicles
Tymon Shipp: We’re In Trouble Y’all, I’m Just Saying.
New on YouTube
Nimesh Patel: Lucky Lefty, OR: I Lost My Right Nut And All I Got Was This Stupid Special
Jason Salmon: Biscuits & Gravy (via Four by Three)
Luke Kidgell: Cheers To That, AUSTRALIA
Chris Porter: There’s No Money in Babies (via Helium Comedy Studios)
Also Kenny DeForest released previously-thought lost footage of his 2017 special, B.A.D. Dreams
THIS WEEK: 14
LAST WEEK: 17
THIS MONTH (APRIL): 58+14= 72
RUNNING TOTAL for 2023: 244+14=258
Late-Night Roundup
Fun Things To Do In NYC
This past weekend’s show(s) I plugged in The New York Times: It’s the relaunch of ArtSpace at PUBLIC hotel in the Lower East Side, starting with a Friday night comedy showcase called CHERRY, co-hosted by Chloe Troast and Moss Perricone.
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