Hollywood is on strike. While that may go over some heads, I bet missing out on some of our favorite TV shows will not. With writers hitting the line last week, that has put plenty of productions on hold. One of the shows forced to halt was Raising Kanan on the Starz Network.
With the huge success, the first 2 seasons had and with Power Book 2: Ghost rounding the curve in its 3rd season, the timing was set to unleash Raising Kanan and Force later this year, but that has come to a halt. While most will be upset with the news, as a writer, I understand why the strike must happen.
Without writers, there are no shows, and as much as we’re waiting to see what happens with Kanan, Raq, Lou, Jukebox, and the rest of the cast, we may have to wait just a bit longer. According to Bob Karish, “this might take a while.” The last writer’s strike to hit Hollywood was in 2007 and that lasted until 2008. In that time, shows were halted, and while some made it back on air, others were not as fortunate.
Luckily, Raising Kanan has too huge of a following to be dismissed but setting the show back a month or more could throw things out of whack for the franchise. On the flip side of the coin, it’s only right that writers and producers are paid what they are worth. These are the people who keep us glued to the TV week in and week out. They’re the reason we pay monthly subscription fees to streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and others. We need them. Hollywood needs them, and actors and actresses need them.
The Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 screenwriters, went on strike after contract negotiations with studios, streaming services, and networks failed. By the end of the week, companies punched back at union in the news media, and striking writers celebrated the disruption of shows filming from finished scripts.
Like writers, directors want more money, especially regarding residual payments (a type of royalty) from streaming services, which have rapidly expanded overseas. Before streaming, writers and directors (and other creative contributors, including actors) could receive residual payments whenever a show was licensed, whether that was for syndication, an international deal, or DVD sales. In the streaming era, as global services like Netflix and Amazon have been reluctant to license their series, those distribution arms have been cut off.
How long will this strike last? No one knows, but the writers must hold their ground until they get what they deserve. Raising Kanan was never given an official release date but dating back to the last 2 seasons, they aired the first episodes in July and August respectively. So there was a chance that Season 3 was scheduled to be released around the same time. But with the strike, that may be pushed back some.
