REUTERS
Not only are some studios demanding that showrunners continue their non-writing work during the writers strike—some are also apparently finding ways not to pay them.
Last week, studios under the corporate umbrellas of Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery sent a letter to showrunners employed by the companies expressing that they were still expected to complete non-writing services. At a meeting of showrunners on Saturday, one writer-producer told Deadline that they “are more united, more convinced than ever that there is no non-writing aspect of what we do.” On Sunday, Deadline reported that certain studios—including Warner Bros. Television, Universal Studio Group, CBS Studios and Disney Television Studios’ 20th Television and ABC Signature—had sent letters to showrunners suspending their overall deals.
David Simon, who created The Wire and wrote for HBO for decades afterward, was apparently one of them. On Monday, he tweeted a video from a WGA protest with the caption, “On the day that HBO called to suspend my deal after 25 years of writing television for them, I was doing the write thing.“