Pete Davidson's Saturday Night Live Isn't Happening This Weekend Due To WGA Strike

Today, Hollywood came to a halt when the Writers Guild of America began a strike, following failed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), including Amazon, Apple, Disney, Discovery-Warner, Netflix, NBC Universal, Paramount, and Sony. While the WGA is looking to negotiate a new deal for fair compensation for the integral work they put into creating movies and television, as well as setting up standards for how artificial intelligence is used as a writing tool, the studios are not willing to meet their requests. Until a new deal can be agreed upon, writing on all film and TV productions has been halted, and that means shows like "Saturday Night Live" are starting their summer hiatus a little early.

This weekend, former "SNL" cast member Pete Davidson was slated to make his hosting debut in conjunction with the release of his new comedy series "Bupkis" on Peacock. However, now that the WGA strike has been activated, no writing can be done on the series, and Variety reports that NBC has announced the episode will not air as planned. In fact, if this disagreement isn't resolved soon, there may not be any new episodes of "Saturday Night Live" to close out the show's 48th season.

Get Ready For Reruns

NBC has indicated that reruns of "SNL" will be airing beginning Saturday, May 6 until further notice. The network had not yet announced who would be hosting the remaining episodes of "SNL" following Pete Davidson, but it's been presumed that there were two more episodes left in season 48. Typically, the season finale brings out some of the comedic big guns, and it's quite possible we could have gotten someone from "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" to host an episode. For now, though, it doesn't sound like we'll be getting a proper end to "SNL" unless the studios start being more sensible about this sensitive situation.

"SNL" won't be the only series that faces immediate consequences of the WGA strike. Late night talk shows like "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," "Late Night with Seth Meyers," and "The Daily Show" will all be on an immediate hiatus until the strike ends. Meanwhile, weekly shows like "Real Time with Bill Maher" and "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" will also be in the same boat. And this will continue until a new deal can be struck with the WGA.

However, even if there is a resolution between the WGA and the AMPTP, there are still looming potential strikes from the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The DGA will begin their own negotiations on Wednesday, May 10, while SAG-AFTRA is slated to start its talks in early June, and both guild stand in solidarity with their writer colleagues.

This could be a long summer for Hollywood, so buckle up.

Read this next: All 10 Chris Farley Movies, Ranked Worst To Best

The post Pete Davidson's Saturday Night Live Isn't Happening This Weekend Due to WGA Strike appeared first on /Film.