William Rainer
Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers are lending a helping hand to their crew in the wake of the writer strike.
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Yesterday, Tuesday the 2nd, more than 11,000 screenwriters unionized and went on strike. This is causing some radical effects in the film industry starting with the late-night genre shows. These shows are suffering from the strike and we are expecting not to see much, if any, production as a result in the near future.
In an effort to keep their crews from freaking out and potentially abandoning ship, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers have devised a plan. Currently, the plan is that NBC will be paying the crews for the next week ending May 12th, and the following payment will be from Fallon and Meyers themselves. As reported by ETCanada, the plan is similar to when the shows experienced the pandemic and paid their crews for the time off.
Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers Team Up with NBC to Ensure Late-Night TV Staffers Are Paid During Hiatus
Both Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers are members of the Writer’s Guild of America, a group of unionized writers on strike. They are both in full support of the movement arguing that screenwriters ought to be paid more and their work be valued higher. In their support however, they are rightly taking steps to support those who help make it all happen, their crew.
How long will this last? When can we expect to see our writers back in action? According to the Guild, it will not be until all screenwriters have substantially more pay and better working situations, mostly revolving around flexibility because of the nature of the job. The past two strikes similar to this one have not been the shortest of occasions. The most recent screenwriter strike lasted 100 days from 2007 to 2008. This is not a great outlook for the industry as a whole, the crews of the late-night shows, and could leave a ghastly void in Fallon and Meyers’ wallets.
