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The dual WGA and SAG-SAFTRA strikes need to be resolved by the end of this month if scripted primetime fare such as 9-1-1: Lone Star and The Cleaning Lady are to return with new episodes in the 2023-24 TV season, says Fox entertainment president Michael Thorn.
Sources tell TVLine that it will take scripted shows roughly eight weeks to get back into production once the strikes are resolved.
“You’re going get to a point in the fall, in the late fall, where it’s going to be very hard to launch [scripted shows] within the traditional TV viewing season,” Thorn told our sister site Deadline.
Fox’s fall TV slate features one full night of scripted animated fare (on Sundays), while the rest of the week is rife with multiple Gordon Ramsay cooking competitions, new seasons of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, Name That Tune and The Masked Singer, 9-1-1: Lone Star reruns, the new, David Spade-hosted Snake Oil game show, and, of course, Friday Night SmackDown.
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I have a feeling these more traditional comapnies like Fox actually want to negotiate. They are the ones made most vulnerable by the strike, since they can’t lean on banked content and foreign productions like Netflix can.
The WGA recently stated that some major production companies have come to them wanting to end the strike, and there was talk of them leaving the AMPTP so they could negotiate separate contracts, but they didn’t give out any names. It wouldn’t surprise me if Netflix was being the stickler here while companies like Disney and Fox contemplate leaving the AMPTP so they can finally get back to business.
The AMPTP denies this, but their job is to present a united front for their constituents. They aren’t going to publicly admit that some of their members are wanting out.