“Strike Force Five” gives a general face to the book strike

CNN
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Bill Maher prides himself on his ability to cut through what he considers conventional wisdom. When the host spoke about it The Random Club podcast. Over the weekend, on the impasse over the ongoing strikes in Hollywood – he called some writers’ union demands “bizarre”, and claimed some “think you owe it to me to live as a writer, and you’re not” – he once again flagrantly separated himself from his union. Contemporaries Late Night.

In fact, the Maher brothers have united in talk comedy (it’s really a boys’ club for now) to support their fellow writers and staff, with Stephen Colbert“Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver Collaborate on Their Podcast,”Fifth Strike ForceIn doing so, the comedians, who sympathized strongly with striking writers, gave public face to a union that had traditionally lacked that kind of power and stardom when trying to muster public sympathy for its cause.

This point of differentiation from actors became apparent when the Screen Actors Guild joined the labor fray in July, with its president, Fran Drescher, The former star of “The Nanny” illustrates the unfairness of the current decade. Drescher’s press conference garnered far more media attention than anything the WGA leaders had mustered in the two months of their strike on their own.

“A simple message, delivered dramatically, from a face most people know,” Matt Belloni of Puck News chirp on time. “And that’s why an actors’ strike is so dangerous for studios.”

Writers have often stood at the forefront of pressure for justice and concessions from major studios, known as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP (of which CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is a member). Still, the public display of camaraderie between the late-night gang marks a departure from previous hits, the latest of which was in 2008, when there was little love lost between David Letterman and Jay Leno, who headlined the two most popular hits. Local news is popular after watching the late news. Options.

Hosts of the “Strike Force Five” that debuted at the top Spotify And apples This week’s podcast charts are using proceeds from the show to raise money for workers on their shows affected by the strike — not just the writers, Kimmel noted on the podcast, but “everyone who works on a TV show who’s properly out of work” right now.

While it is not unusual for performers to express solidarity with their writers, the late-night dynamic is unusual, given that the comedians who host these shows not only co-write their material, but serve as members of the staff. Like everyone who watched the Emmy show. I will mention the presentation of this class. Writers also appear regularly in comedy bits on shows. (Even Maher noted on his podcast this week that he wrote for his show and expressed appreciation for his book, before mocking the fears of some of those marching alongside them.)

The sad irony is that late-night viewership ratings were already declining before the hit, amid shifts in television viewing patterns driven in part by streaming. Trevor Noah and James Corden They left their shows last year, shrinking the roster of notable talent.

A multi-month strike likely won’t help in terms of further eroding people’s already strained habit of watching those shows every day, and will very likely exacerbate the problem.

For now, Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel, Myers and Oliver still get a fair amount of attention, and thanks to Colbert (whom Kimmel credits with suggesting the “Strike Force” collaboration), they’re using it.

In the first episode, the hosts also express their mutual hope that the strikes will end soon, with Colbert noting that people keep asking him how he is enjoying his extended “vacation”.

“It’s like a vacation in the same way a colonoscopy is like a nap,” he said.