Now many times in the WGA spotter line, old Last Week Tonight with John Oliver writer Liz Hynes met passers-by who had no idea her business existed.
“I was shocked by how many people thought the hosts were writing their own material late at night,” Hynes told The Daily Beast in a recent interview. “I had to say, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s usually a team,’ about three or four times.”
Usually, this team converges through the Writers Guild of America (WGA) – currently in its fourth week of a critical strike against the studios. The last writers’ strike lasted 100 days from 2007 to 2008, and this time the solidarity among the organized labor of the industry seems to be at its peak.
Still, the issues at hand are complex, especially for those outside the industry who are not at the forefront as venture capitalists hollow out legacy payment structures of entertainment. For the WGA to be successful, Hynes and his late night writer friends Greg Iwinski and Sasha Stewart know that communication, both within and outside the union, will be crucial. So they put their urge to write jokes to good use to create “Contract TK,” a web-based nighttime show all about the writers’ strike.
Iwinski previously wrote for: Late Show with Stephen Colbert And Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Hynes worked as an assistant writer. Colbert He worked as a writer during Iwinski’s tenure and also with him. Oliver. And Stewart had previously written for Night Show with Larry WilmoreWhere Hynes also once served as a trainee.
All three authors now sit on WGA East’s legislative council, and Iwinski is a member of the negotiating committee. Speaking to The Daily Beast, Iwinski emphasized that “Contract TK” is not an official guild project, it’s just “we idiots doing stupid things in the back”.
Self-contempt aside, Iwinski and the “Contract TK” writers know what’s at stake in their struggle is crucial not just to them, but to workers across the country. Since last March, when the strike remained only a hypothetical possibility, they’ve been considering how to engage other WGA members ahead of the bargain and maintain their morale.
Finally, Iwinski had an idea. “Late night writers learned how to quickly explain complex socio-political issues in an entertaining way,” he said. “And I wanted to make sure we took advantage of that as much as possible.”
Why not put on a night show about why the late night strikes anymore?
“One of the biggest problems with negotiations is that studios are not responding to most of our offers,” Iwinski taunts in his first video, “Contract TK,” released last Monday. “For the first time in history there was no sheet music in a studio.”
The name of the project is a play on the media world term “TK”, which is used as a placeholder for bits of text and other assets that are still “to come”. Stewart co-hosted the first episode with Iwinski last Monday and joked that an alternative title might be “The Jokes You Love From Plaque Signs, But We’re Saying Them Out Loud.”
The show’s final installment debuted Thursday night, as did all subsequent episodes. “Pay your writers!” at the Boston University graduation ceremony recently. booed by the slogan Warner Bros.
John Thibodeaux, who hosted this week’s episode with Hynes, mocked the alumni saying “we don’t want you here” and “Shut up Zaslav”. Zaslav then suggested combining all these chants in a new service called ‘Protest Max’.”
“Drop the ‘Protest,'” Hynes added. “More clear.”
While certain aspects of WGA’s negotiations with studios may seem industry-specific, Iwinski told The Daily Beast that the fundamental struggle faced by workers across numerous industries across America is the same: “Your company is gaining more and more and you’re not getting a bigger share of the profits. In fact, it’s more and more. You make little money.”
The destruction of the ruins and the rise of mini-rooms have been key battlegrounds between the union and the studios, and late night writers have become particularly vulnerable as job security in the industry continues to evaporate.
Like Late Night with Seth Meyers writer Sal Gentile recently added to The Daily Beast’s Last Laugh podcast: “If you turn writers into business writers who are paid daily to write horrific AI-generated scripts, it will only produce terrible content. You won’t want to watch this and you’ll be so angry watching it.”
Iwinski also lamented the threat of daily rates on comedy variety writers’ already short three-month contracts. “There’s a very stark existential threat on the table in terms of the kind of television we make,” Iwinski said. “It’s motivating to be able to give some reciprocity to people who want us to get paid daily,” he said while working on “Contract TK.”
Future episodes will feature a rotating cast of presenters, with various late-night writers appearing to perform sketches and other pieces. Thursday’s episode concludes with an episode where Stewart smashes the unequal pile of treatment studios over streaming shows versus “real” television series.
“Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC and The Amber Ruffin Show Recordings on Peacock were recorded in the same studio,” says Stewart, while adorned with professorial gear, including a bowtie. “They share much of the same writers, producers, and crew. Yet, the writers on Amber Ruffin’s show have weekly minimum wages, the rest, their 13-week guarantee. none – no protection they will receive Seth Meyers. That’s because it’s airing on a streamer named bird, not on a channel with the bird logo.”
As with everyone’s time, all the materials used in the construction of “Contract TK” are donated and the production will never be sold. Iwinski is also a former night show And Colbert Report co-authoring writer Rob Dubbins for the use of Scripto, this collaboration made possible even between the writers of the six late night show in multiple time zones. The trio is encouraging viewers to donate to the Entertainment Community Fund to support workers affected by the strike.
“It’s nice to be able to put a face to this idea of people writing jokes for you every night.”
— sasha stewart
“It’s nice to be able to give a face to the idea of people who write jokes for you every night and say, ‘Yes, there are a lot of people in the industry who are trying to do it.’ have these gains and these protections,’” Stewart told The Daily Beast.
Also, rotating staff can highlight how the various issues on strike affect different people. For example: Stewart revealed that the series plans to host a husband-and-wife writing team to explain “how hard it is to be on strike when you’re both on strike.”
According to Hynes, Hollywood now seems to be overrun with businesses that decide organized workers are too expensive. “There are a ton of unionized workers here,” he said. “And I think these companies came along and said, ‘This is your most expensive piece. A lot of money is being made on these products and it should go to fewer people.’”
Open Last Week TonightIwinski said it often takes a lot of effort from writers like him and Hynes to highlight the hypocrisy of their subjects. But in this case, it’s ridiculously easy. “These companies don’t seem to be able to understand that we can see the recordings of the earnings calls,” he said. “We can hear what they’re saying on Upfronts.”
Meanwhile, during the strikes, Stewart met other workers whose stories constantly reminded him of why he was fighting. “We’re increasingly deciding to stay here until they give us a fair deal,” he said. And as long as they are, “Contract TK” will be there to provide regular summaries, pissing off some uninformed admins, and most importantly, making writers laugh during a tough time.
As for professional hosts who might want to join? “Any host is welcome,” Iwinski said. “If Arsenio wants to go down, I’ll give him unlimited time.”