There is no set end date for the SAG AFTRA and WGA strikes against AMPTP—the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
This means that:
The fate of television and movie productions I currently filming are hanging in limbo. Depending what has already been finished, there may not be anything new to air on networks in the fall.
Union actors and actresses are not allowed to promote their work on social media or anywhere whatsoever. No press tours, no interviews, no Instagram posts means no way for normies to “follow the stars.” The entire cast of Oppenheimer left the European premiere as soon as the strike was called, apparently.
Union actors and actresses can still do commercials, some voiceover work, incredibly small budget films with approval, and student films with approval, but that’s basically it. They aren’t allowed to take non-union work. Not that shenanigans might not occur with controlled celebrities and projects, but the starving artists will let the world know about it pretty quickly if it does.
As this extends, and networks are forced to air re-runs, people will not be able to engage in escapism from the world around them because they’ll be forced to stop consoooooming new content.
So is it feasible that the strikes are actually meant to help wake people up by taking away their distractions? And assist in cleaning out Hollywood in the process? I feel it’s possible. I’ll be curious to see what, if anything, might happen with “news” broadcasters as some of them may be SAG-AFTRA members.
I really believe it's not a coincidence and both strikes are part of the plan.
OTOH, as someone who hasn't watched almost any TV in about 7 years, aren't there already MASSIVE quantities of shows out there? Are most people even going to notice if they rerun some stuff? Lol
Being someone on the outskirts of the industry looking in, I’ve had friends bring this up.
“After all, it isn’t 2007 this time,” they point out, “there’s plenty of things to stream.”
I would argue that, yes, people can turn to reruns when nothing new is airing. However, the average person has had their attention span shortened significantly. If you don’t have new things airing, there’s nothing triggering those with ADD/ADHD to turn to Hulu to watch the latest episode of a show, since Hulu acts like a modern DVR in many cases. There’s nothing for the “Keeping up with the Joneses” types to discuss at work, forcing the water cooler Karens to run to Netflix so they aren’t left out of the discussion on the latest Shondaland show.
People have been trained to want new and more. When more episodes of new shows are not available, reruns lose their luster very quickly.