According to Deadline, Warner Bros. Television recently suspended top deals with Greg Berlanti (The Flash) Productions, Bill Lawrence’s (Ted Lasso) Doozer Productions, Mindy Kaling’s (The Office) Kaling International, and many others. Three months into the writer’s strike Warner Bros. Television suspended many overall deals with some of the top creators; sources say JJ Abrams’ (Star Trek) Bad Robot is also in the process of being notified. Sources also say that John Wells’ (The West Wing) Productions’ pact was suspended back in June and that Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Man) Prods.’ deal. may have also been recently suspended.
According to Deadline, this recent event comes three months after WBTV as well as other studios sent out letters to writers and producers under first-look agreements that don’t have a series in production or even post-production and informed them all that their deals were being suspended. At the time WBTV had not suspended its top talents, especially the ones with active projects.
According to Deadline, for nearly all of the top showrunners at WBTV and many other studies and streamers, these arrangements are currently believed to be of suspended and extended nature. This means that they will receive the suspension towards the end of their term. This concern is for lower and mid-level pacts which may lapse towards the end of the current strike. There has not been a termination of deals unlike what occurred during the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike; studios have opted to continue the suspensions as a means to not have to pay during the work stoppage. This may be due to studios having already pared down on their rosters in the past year.
The Writers Guild of America strike started earlier this year in May, and months later the SAG-AFTRA strike commenced in July.