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Just as studios were quick to start suspending overall and first-look deals just days after the start of the WGA strike, several began to restore suspended pacts right after the strike ended Wednesday morning.
I hear Disney TV Studios’ 20th Century Fox TV and ABC Signature, Warner Bros. Television and Apple are among those who started notifying people that their pacts have been reinstated. That includes all the studios’ top talent, both writer-producers and non-writing producers whose deals were suspended more recently.
Other studios, including Amazon Studios, CBS Studios, Paramount TV Studios and Universal Studio Group, are expected to start sending their letters to writers and non-writing producers by end of week — some as soon as late tonight.
Deals don’t automatically extend after a strike-related suspension, with studios exercising their option to do that on a case-by-case basis. As expected, not all pacts will be extended, meaning that some will not be getting the suspension period of as much as five months for the first wave of impacted writers added to the end of the term. I hear that affects deals close to their end date which the studios are not planning to renew. (A number of pacts that expired during the strike also are not being extended.)
Of the three studios that have started to send their notifications, I hear WBTV has not extended a sizable number of its suspended pacts. According to sources, this is not final, and, for longer-term agreements, a decision on possible extensions will be made after additional discussions.
