Talk Shows Could Return Soon as WGA Strike Nears End

Entertainment fans woke up to fantastic news on Monday: the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) had agreed on a tentative deal for a new contract on Sunday night.

There are still lots of details and procedural moves to take care of; for instance, the WGA’s members have yet to officially ratify the offer. But historically, once WGA leadership has agreed to a deal with studios, the guild’s membership usually ratifies the new contract without much delay, and by the end of the first week of October, many of these final hurdles will likely be cleared.

Talk shows will be some of the first batch of content to return to airwaves once the new deal is officially in place for WGA scribes, just as they were some of the first shows to be pulled once the writers’ strike became official. A report from Deadline indicates that daytime syndicated talk shows like “The Drew Barrymore Show,” “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” and the “The Kelly Clarkson Show” could be back on TV by the second week of October. Barrymore drew flack from union members for announcing earlier this month that she would be premiering a new season of her show despite the fact that the strike had not ended, but reversed course a week later by promising not to resume until the labor dispute had been resolved.

Deadline reports that late-night talkers like “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on NBC could follow their daytime cohorts back to TV screens quickly, as well. Bill Maher nearly crossed picket lines to restart his weekly HBO show “Real Time,” but backed down once the WGA and AMPTP resumed negotiations late last week.

The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has not agreed to a new deal with the AMPTP yet, and though many industry observers expect a contract to follow quickly now that the WGA has agreed to terms, Hollywood performers won’t be able to appear on any program to discuss or promote their work until both strikes are resolved.

It remains to be seen just how drastically the fall TV schedule is affected by the strike. Seasons of new scripted series would normally be premiering at this time of year, but audiences should expect delays of several months at the least for those projects. Titles that were due to premiere in 2024 are also delayed, such as the new season of “Stranger Things” on Netflix.

That means audiences shouldn’t expect to see any changes to the “Monday Night Football” schedule this fall. ABC will still air 10 more “MNF” games than originally intended to fill programming gaps left by the strikes, and CBS will continue to offer episodes of “Yellowstone” every Sunday for the same reason. But at the very least, those titles will have new episodes of daytime and late-night talk shows to keep them company.