After weeks spent negotiating a new and fair contract with Hollywood’s major studios, the Writers Guild of America is moving forward with a strike—the union’s first in 15 years. Roughly 12,000 writers plan to walk out and begin picketing on Tuesday, effectively pausing or impacting all productions. Late-night TV shows will be the first to get hit.
These shows, which are sometimes typically written the same day they air, are expected to either go dark or be delayed by the writers strike. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night With Seth Meyers, and The Daily Show will go on hiatus and expected to begin airing reruns, Deadline reports. Weekly programs such as Saturday Night Live, Real Time With Bill Maher, and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver are at a similar standstill, although they could resume depending on when a deal between studios and writers is reached.
Pete Davidson, who is scheduled to host this week’s SNL on May 6, told The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon last week that a canceled show would fit his personal branding, joking: “It sucks because it just feeds my weird story I have in my head, like, of course that would happen to me.”
In a statement shared with Vanity Fair, the WGA said: “The WGA Negotiating Committee began this process intent on making a fair deal, but the studios’ responses have been wholly insufficient given the existential crisis writers are facing. The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing.”
Ahead, a look at how each late-night host bid a temporary farewell to their shows on Monday. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert, who welcomed guest James Marsden and delved further into Tucker Carlson’s Fox News ouster, devoted a segment of Monday’s show to the writers strike in a segment called, “Future News Jokes Now…Just in Case.” Before riffing on potential headlines involving Ron DeSantis, Joe Biden, and the Barbie movie that would be missed should the show go dark, Colbert aired photos of his writing staff. “Without these people, this show would be called The Late Show With a Guy Rambling About The Lord of the Rings and Boats for an Hour,” he quipped, adding, “The writers’ demands are not unreasonable. I’m a member of the guild. I support collective bargaining. This nation owes so much to unions.”