With Hollywood hobbled by a writer’s strike, actors could soon be joining them on the picket line after a midnight deadline passed without an agreement over contracts.
The Screen Actors Guild said early Thursday that the midnight deadline passed with no agreement with the group representing studios such as
Walt Disney
(ticker: DIS) and
Warner Bros. Discovery
(WBD), broadcast and cable networks, and streamers such as
Netflix
(NFLX).
The union’s negotiating committee voted unanimously to recommend a strike to its national board after its TV, theatrical and streaming contracts expired at midnight. The board will vote Thursday morning on whether to strike.
It threatens to further disrupt show development going into next season.
The Writers Guild went on strike May 2. If SAG does strike, it would be the first time actors and writers were on strike at the same time since 1960.
The strike stopped many live-action TV and film projects, filling the fall TV lineup with reality shows that don’t need unionized writers.
The Emmy awards’ live broadcast, scheduled for Sept. 18, may be in doubt if both the Writer’s Guild and the SAG union are on strike then.
The Emmy nominations saluting the best television and streaming shows of the year were announced Wednesday.
Quinta Brunson, lead actress and writer behind Emmy-nominated Abbott Elementary, which runs on ABC, is among the SAG members who are supporting the writers’ strike.
Succession, the drama about a family of media moguls and streaming on
Warner Bros. Discovery’s
Max platform, garnered 27 nods, the most of any series. Max’s The Last of Us received 24 nominations, and its The White Lotus garnered 23. Apple TV’s show Ted Lasso received 21.
Max had the most nominations overall, with 127, and Netflix had 103.
Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com
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