Drew Audience Members Kicked Out for Wearing WGA Pins

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Mark Jeffries

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Sep 11, 2023, 2:04:44 PM9/11/23
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The two NY students, who claim they were not aware of the strikes (!), were handed the pins by picketers as they entered the CBS Broadcast Center this morning--security told them to take them off--one did and one didn't, the one who didn't was noted by a crew member and they were both tossed out of the studio--they then accepted WGA strike shirts and joined the picketers:

Kevin M.

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Sep 11, 2023, 7:30:04 PM9/11/23
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Actors are gonna blacklist that show when the strike ends. It just looks bad. 

On Mon, Sep 11, 2023 at 11:04 AM Mark Jeffries <spotl...@gmail.com> wrote:
The two NY students, who claim they were not aware of the strikes (!), were handed the pins by picketers as they entered the CBS Broadcast Center this morning--security told them to take them off--one did and one didn't, the one who didn't was noted by a crew member and they were both tossed out of the studio--they then accepted WGA strike shirts and joined the picketers:


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Mark Jeffries

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Sep 12, 2023, 12:15:15 PM9/12/23
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For the record, Drew claims she was not aware of any of this.  I'll give her the benefit of the doubt here, although I know that the response will be that she's not aware of anything.  But she does do the show for you--take it with you.  (I only know this catchphrase because I've been hearing it many mornings when switching over to watch "The Price is Right." When their season starts, I'll be hearing instead "the news continues now on our CBS News Chicago channel on Pluto TV, we'll be back in an hour here on CBS2--have a good day.")

Tom Wolper

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Sep 12, 2023, 1:41:20 PM9/12/23
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From what I understand from the article the WGA picket line consisted of Drew’s four writers and they weren’t trying to keep people from crossing the picket line. The two people who got stopped for their pins weren’t yet in the studio. The news story hadn’t yet broke. If you were Drew’s producer would you interrupt her preparing for a season premiere to tell her this happened?

PGage

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Sep 13, 2023, 10:30:00 AM9/13/23
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I support labor, but I am struggling to understand the beef here. Didn’t we see all the Kate night talk shows going back to work during the last strike, without writers? I don’t recall them being criticized like this. Is Barrymore using scab writers? Is it that she is crossing a Union picket line (though as Tom points out often picket lines are not actually boycott lines)?

She is from one of the most honored acting families in history, she could do shows on the history of Hollywood exploitation of actors and writers, the importance of human actors and writers, etc.

Aren’t we likely to see Colbert and the Jimmys back sans writers if the strike goes more than another month now that summer is over?

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Bob Jersey

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Sep 13, 2023, 10:48:09 AM9/13/23
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That's why they have a podcast, unless they choose not to talk about Fight Club, so to speak... link to our thread about it...
B

PGage, to Tom Wolper and Mark Jeffries, in part, Sept 13th:

David Bruggeman

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Sep 13, 2023, 11:39:51 AM9/13/23
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Unless the actors strike resolves first, I don't expect the late night shows to go back without writers.

David

Tom Wolper

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Sep 13, 2023, 12:36:52 PM9/13/23
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In the last strike the WGA negotiated interim agreements with the talk shows. This time around the WGA said there will be no interim agreements.

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PGage

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Sep 13, 2023, 2:41:00 PM9/13/23
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Right, I have been following that thread, though not the podcasts, so maybe they address this. I assumed the podcast was to A) show their support for strikers, B) keep their brand before the public and C) fill their Jones to entertain and tell current events jokes. But until last week going dark for the Strike has not really hurt them much, mostly would have been reruns anyway. I am suspecting that their shows will. It be able to tolerate missing much more than a month of new shows, and pressure will build on them to go back without writers, with strike beards, and do some kind of bare bones show.

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Jim Ellwanger

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Sep 13, 2023, 2:45:15 PM9/13/23
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None of the late-night talk shows normally take the entire summer off -- they just take off a week or two here and there -- so they have already missed out on a lot of potential new episodes since the writers' strike began on May 2nd.


Tom Wolper

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Sep 13, 2023, 3:05:23 PM9/13/23
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One important correction: the income from the podcast goes to the staffs of the shows and not the strikers. On one of the episodes the hosts were talking about how big the staffs are and Colbert said his was bigger than 200 and Fallon said his staff is about 300. Outside of the 20 or so writers that are on strike, the rest of the staff members are laid off until the shows go back into production. The crews are network employees and might be assigned to other shows. After being laid off long enough staffers are going to have to start looking for work and won’t be available when the strike ends. A technical expert like a sound mixer is probably in high demand elsewhere and if the strike ends on a Friday and the network wants a new show Monday, where are you going to find an experienced sound mixer?

Mark Jeffries

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Sep 13, 2023, 3:06:09 PM9/13/23
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Kimmel's been taking the last few summers off, partially because of the pandemic--but last summer there were guest hosts.

Mark Jeffries
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PGage

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Sep 13, 2023, 9:52:47 PM9/13/23
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We could debate the relative value of Late Night Summer shows vs Fall shows (I still maintain the latter are far more valuable), but it is a secondary matter. Indeed, if the programs and networks have taken major financial hits over the summer from the Strike, the main point is even stronger: the pressure on these guys to go back to work a month from now is going to be intense. If the strike lasts that long, I suspect Barrymore will not be the only talk show host doing writer-less shows, and I will be surprised if the howls of outrage are as loud.


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Kevin M.

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Sep 13, 2023, 10:42:46 PM9/13/23
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To me, what sets Barrymore apart is she is an actress and she has been a creative force in films for decades (granted, I haven’t liked most of what she has done, but her industry accomplishments are undeniable in spite of my opinions). For her to move forward feels like a betrayal to both striking unions. She’s got hers, so she doesn’t stand with those who don’t have theirs. Others will undeniably follow suit, but as you pointed out, she is part of a stage and screen legacy, so she ought to know how this plays amongst her peers.

PGage

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Sep 16, 2023, 2:55:36 PM9/16/23
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So I have been able to read a little about how late night talk shows dealt with the last WGA strike in 2007-08. After going dark for several months these programs returned in January 2008 without writers:

  • The Colbert Report
  • The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
  • Late Night with Conan O’Brien
  • Real Time with Bill Maher
  • The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

They all returned without writers. They got some criticism from the Union. They all emphasized that they supported the Union, but also had to think of all the other employees who depended on them for work. Also, these hosts were employees themselves and in the end had no choice.

The Late Show and The Late Late Show were able to return to work cleanly because WWP owned the shows directly and signed a side deal with the WGA. ( see: https://lastnighton.com/2023/05/11/what-happened-to-late-night-tv-when-writers-went-on-strike-in-2007/).

One difference this go round is likely that late night programs are much less profitable than they were 15 years ago, so likely less pressure to return. 

Mahr’s return is likely a direct reflection that he does not support the Union, and I suspect now actually makes it harder for the others to go back without being tainted by association with him.

This from yesterday’s Deadline:

“Meyers, a member of the WGA who has been regularly seen on the picket line, told Deadline earlier this summer, “As a writer who identifies as a writer, there would be no trying to get around [it]. I wouldn’t be looking for loopholes to figure out how to write [the show],” he said.

Deadline has spoken to sources close to some of the hosts and while they would like to return to work, they have no interest in returning to work during a strike.

Could they? Theoretically, yes, under the same rules that allow Maher to return as the host on Real Time.

The difference? Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel, Meyers and Oliver are more in line with the WGA’s demands than Maher, who previously called some of the WGA’s demands “kooky”.…”

https://deadline.com/2023/09/writers-strike-bill-maher-returns-will-other-late-night-hosts-follow-1235548255/


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Kevin M.

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Sep 16, 2023, 4:22:47 PM9/16/23
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One additional distinction between the other talk show hosts… Barrymore isn’t a writer, isn’t a standup, and although she has experience acting and producing, she doesn’t have decades of writing experience (and a backlog of material in her back pocket) to draw from while her writers are away. If she says anything at the top of her show by way of a prepared introduction or monologue, somebody wrote it, and that somebody was doing the job of the writers. 

Leno and Letterman could tell jokes written 15 years earlier. Colbert and O’Brien could draw upon their improv backgrounds. Kimmel could… I don’t know… stare into the camera and smirk. 

During the last writers strike, I believe Colbert took heat from the union because he was coming up with new material (due to the nature of his show at the time, that was inevitable), whereas the others were doing mostly “found comedy” such as putting a camera inside the Hello Deli or reading funny headlines from a newspaper or talking to their uncle the wacky doorman. Leno and Kimmel used to interview each other because nobody else would go on their respective shows. 

Barrymore’s host persona is too fluffy for me to tolerate for more than a few minutes. She had the mom of a coworker of mine on last year and I tried to watch the segment, but I couldn’t finish it. But she is obviously prompted on what to say throughout the show. That type of prompting is a form of writing, and I’d have to look at the contract to be sure, but I suspect that qualifies as a job traditionally done by a WGA member. 

JW

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Sep 17, 2023, 6:22:42 AM9/17/23
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> One difference this go round is likely that late night programs are much
> less profitable than they were 15 years ago, so likely less pressure to
> return.

Another (huge) difference is that the actors are also on strike, so even if a late-night show went back into production, the roster of available guests wouldn't be all that appealing.

PGage

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Sep 18, 2023, 11:08:45 AM9/18/23
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Matt Belloni at Puck News did specifically answer my question last night, and added another reason that this strike is different than the last one: social media has given the Unions a powerful tool for communicating its message and punishing those who get out of line (I follow actor Josh Malina, a strong Union guy, on Twitter and he has been aggressive in calling out those who cross the Union lines). While there was social media during last WGA strike, it was not as powerful as today.

Belloni suggested that Barrymore ought to have put out a statement like Conan and Kimmel did last strike (my thought as well):


“Remember, network late night hosts returned without writers after just six weeks of the 2007-08 WGA strike. Conan O’Brien’s statement at the end of 2007 is interesting to read through the lens of the current situation:

    “Unfortunately, now with the New Year upon us, I am left with a difficult decision. Either go back to work and keep my staff employed or stay dark and allow 80 people, many of whom have worked for me for fourteen years, to lose their jobs…. So, it is only after a great deal of thought that I have decided to go back on the air on January 2nd.”

Jimmy Kimmel soon followed: “It is time to go back to work. I support my colleagues and friends in the WGA completely and hope this ends both fairly and soon.”

Can you imagine Conan or Kimmel putting out those statements today? No way. Even if they wanted to, the current late-night hosts would get destroyed online. Instead, they’re hawking Casamigos and Pepsi on a podcast to help their staff members. Again, I’m not saying they want to go back; my point is, like Barrymore, they can’t go back—with the exception of Bill Maher, who gave the WGA a middle finger this week, but whose brand is pretty much to extend middle fingers to anything that negatively impacts him personally.”



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Kevin M.

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Oct 4, 2023, 10:13:18 PM10/4/23
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Post Script: Barrymore’s head writers define to return to the talk show 


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