Late Night With Seth Meyers lays out the impending WGA strike

Tonight at 11:59 PDT, the clock will officially run out on the current contract between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), at which point the WGA is poised to strike if ongoing negotiations don’t succeed. In recent weeks, countless writers have explained why they voted in favor of a strike, citing financial instability, scant opportunities for upward mobility, and the “abuses” of streaming mini-rooms as some of the industry issues they want to see addressed and alleviated.

Although a WGA strike would mean (temporary) curtains for his own program, comedian Seth Meyers has asserted he’ll rally behind the Guild if they move forward with the action. In the event of a strike, late-night variety shows like Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Saturday Night Live will see some of the swiftest ramifications given the structure of their writers’ rooms. Like fellow late-night hosts Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel, Meyers has agreed to pause production on Late Night With Seth Meyers if an agreement isn’t reached, a decision he discussed recently on the show.

“I’m good at one thing, which is writing, and I love writing so much. I am deeply proud of the fact that I get to be a professional writer,” Meyers shared during Late Night with Seth Meyers’ “Corrections” segment on Friday evening. “I bring this up because, as of Monday at midnight, there might be a writers’ strike. And if a writers’ strike happens, that would shut down production on a great many shows.”

The last time the WGA struck—between 2007-2008—the action lasted 100 days and brought the industry to a screeching halt, shortening countless shows and leaving many others abruptly in the lurch. At that time, Meyers was in the thick of his tenure at Saturday Night Live; in his experience, a strike “doesn’t just affect the writers, it affects all the incredible non-writing staff on these shows,”

“It would really be a miserable thing for people to have to go through, especially considering we’re on the heels of that awful pandemic that affected obviously not just show business, but all of us,” Meyers opined.

Meyers also emphasized to his audience that, if they don’t see him behind the Late Night desk in the next few days, it will be a direct result of the potential strike. Although Meyers says he’s “incredibly hopeful” that the WGA will be able to come to an agreement with the AMPTP, he also asserts that the demands laid out by the Guild—which include reworking writer compensation, overhauling measly streaming residuals, and regulating the use of AI in writers rooms—are far from unfair.

“I also feel very strongly that what the writers are asking for is not unreasonable,” he concluded. “And, as a proud member of the Guild, I’m very grateful that there is an organization that looks out for the best interests of writers.”