Hi sorry if it’s is a dumb question but I don’t understand what’s happening with the Tony’s do yo mind telling me? I’m not American so I don’t really get how the wga strike is related , is this a punishment to the writers because of the strike?
Not a dumb question, I'm happy to explain. So. The WGA is on strike. Which means, no WGA members are doing any writing for broadcast television (among other things). Members who cross the picket line would face serious consequences, and non-member writers who work as scabs during the strike also risk serious consequences (like the inability to ever become a member).
The Tony Awards, although focused on Broadway, are nonetheless a televised broadcast. The jokes, the scripts, all the funny bits of dialogue etc? Those are not written by playwrights or naturally improvised by the various hosts and presenters. Those are written by screenwriters. The same screenwriters who are on strike.
So, because of that, in order for the Tony Awards to move forward as usual, the Broadway League went to the WGA to request a "strike waiver." What this means is, they wanted the WGA to agree to allow writers (and anyone striking in solidarity) to cross the picket line to write and produce the telecast without consequences (essentially to break the strike for this particular program).
Naturally, the WGA said no. Why "naturally," you may ask? Because the Tony Awards air on CBS, which is one of the networks that has caused the strike by refusing to negotiate in good faith with the WGA and putting corporate greed over basic human decency and the lives of hardworking people. Granting a strike waiver for this would undermine the whole point of the strike and do little more than line studio pockets with the advertising revenue and viewership from a major broadcast.
In sum: the Tony Awards can't air because they don't have the writers to write the broadcast (in theory, they could try to make it work anyway, but that would be unlikely to go well). If people are upset about that, then they should take it up with CBS. Fuck the Hollywood studios; Support Unions.









