Transcript: Hollywood Greenlights Get Harder
Post-strike, writers have returned to a vastly changed industry
Sean McNulty (00:04):
Welcome to The Ankler podcast. This is Sean McNulty from The Wakeup newsletter here at The Ankler on the morning of Friday, October 6th. I'm joined as always by Elaine Low, and of course, Richard Rushfield from Los Angeles who cannot wait to talk about the new Bleacher Sports add-on tier on Max. Richard, just hang tight. We'll get to you shortly and I know you've been shopping at the bid all week to dive into it.
Richard Rushfield (00:27):
Badminton rights.
Sean McNulty (00:29):
It's probably next on the list, Richard, at this point, honestly, I think of what's available.
Richard Rushfield (00:33):
I'm excited.
Sean McNulty (00:34):
Elaine, did Taylor Swift get you into football yet, or is it all for naught?
Elaine Low (00:37):
Listen, all I'll say is two weeks ago, I didn't know who Travis Kelce was, and now I know what his mother's name is, I have seen all the clips.
Sean McNulty (00:46):
All right, we've got you on a clip basis at least. Maybe not on Sunday afternoons, but...
Elaine Low (00:50):
Following ESPN on Instagram, that's something, right?
Sean McNulty (00:54):
Twelve weeks left, Elaine. So we got a long time to reel you in.
Richard Rushfield (00:58):
What's great for me is that it's bringing together two things that I know nothing about. So sort of combining them, everything I don't know or follow can just become part of that story then. I learned it all in one swoop.
Sean McNulty (01:11):
So Elaine, we are entering, well, day three of negotiations here, week one of negotiations for SAG and the AMPTP since the strike. Nothing too much happening at this point. What's the latest here?
Elaine Low (01:25):
No, we are on day three. They met Monday, Wednesday, Friday of this week. They released a joint statement that said both parties were going to be working internally over the weekend, I assume, sort of going over whatever they've talked about, and then will reconvene on Monday. So what we know is that nothing's going to get resolved today, but it seems like progress that they have been meeting regularly and are agreeing to meet again. And from talking to people familiar with the talks, as I understand it, on Monday, it was mainly just a catch-up and review day for the CEOs in the room to sort of get back up to speed. Obviously, there are a disparate group of issues that the performers are asking for and are negotiating around, so we'll just have to sort of wait and see. But I think everyone is expecting, or they're kind of hoping, they're like, "Oh, this is going to be over quick, right?" And it's like, "Yeah, maybe." But you've still got like 160,000 people whose issues you have to account for, so maybe hit the brakes on that.
Sean McNulty (02:23):
Yeah, I mean, the four leaders are in the room. This isn't like-
Elaine Low (02:27):
Yeah, it's progress.
Richard Rushfield (02:29):
I saw a lot of people had put predictions out there before the talk started that it would be one week almost certainly, maybe two weeks at most, possibly might drift into two weeks, but certainly no more than that. Expectations were very set that they were just going to kind of walk into the room, shake hands, and Hollywood can move forward.