TV Writers Say They’re Striking to Stop the Destruction of Their Profession
Television shows across the country are going dark because their writers have walked off the job. The strikers say they had no choice but to walk, as new technology and the squeeze from executives have put their very livelihood in serious danger.
Writers walk the picket line on the second day of the television and movie writers’ strike outside of Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California, on May 3, 2023. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images)
When Sharyn Rothstein was hired onto her first television writing job, she had two young children. She needed stability, and the USA Network’s show Suits offered her that.
“I got to work for most of the year: I knew what my income was going to be and I knew what my job was going to be,” she told me. But in the eight years since that first job, the industry has changed.
“The amount of time we have to write a show has shrunk, and the amount of writers who they will hire to write that show has shrunk. So writers end up only working six, ten, or maybe twelve weeks in a year. You can’t piece together a sustainable living doing that.”
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