MTV Movie & TV Awards airs Sunday in taped format during WGA strike
Hollywood's writer strike has hit one of MTV's biggest nights of the year. Tonight MTV Movie and TV Award show is supposed to be broadcast live out of the Santa Monica Airport but that didn't happen. The show was supposed to take place at the Barker Hangar. KKL News reporter Lori Perez is there live tonight with more on the strike's impact on the entertainment industry. Lori. Well Pat Barker Hangar behind me was meant to be a place of celebration and celebrities tonight. Instead as you said it was scaled down significantly you could still see the tents and the trailers they had set up in anticipation.
The Writers Guild of America had threatened to pick it here but then called it off as the live show was canceled. With no host and no presenters the MTV Movie and TV Awards were no frills. Live bits replaced by flashbacks to previous shows and all the honorees like Pedro Pascal who won Best Hero accepted off-site. Wish we could all be together so that I could look into your eyes and tell you that all the young people in the world are my heroes. MTV canceled the live event and pre-taped the award show after host Drew Barrymore followed by a host of other actors set to be presenters dropped out in support of striking writers. A solidarity shouted out by several winners. You know I stand here before you tonight you know side by side with my sisters and brothers from the WGA.
Being a writer is a whole job and it deserves respect. The impact on this year's MTV Awards is an echo to the 100 day strike of 2007-2008. Jonathan Handel is an entertainment attorney and journalist. Fifteen years ago the actors in solidarity with the writers turned the Golden Globes into a cut-rate press conference. They boy-totted and all we saw was announcers reading the results. Very boring and the threat of doing the same thing to the Oscars was one of the factors that ended the strike. After the Super Bowl the Oscars are the second most valuable advertising night of the year for the networks.
They're a long way off but Handel and others say the strike will inflict plenty of pain even before then. I think we're gonna see a lot of production shut down in the coming weeks as well. If the strike continues into the summer which we believe it will on the fall television season will either be delayed or quite likely destroyed. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers publicly responded Thursday to some of the Union's top demands. Better compensation, more residuals and specifically for minimums on staffing and duration of employment saying we don't agree with applying a one-size-fits-all solution to shows that are unique and different in their approach to creative staffing. Handel says that was forceful and telling. No one is ready.
Neither the writers nor the studios at this point to make a deal between the two of them. They are too far apart. Now a lingering strike could even have international impact. He says the Writers Guild of Great Britain has instructed its members to also not work for the studios that the WGA is striking against. We are live in Santa Monica. I'm Laurie Perez, K-Cal News Pat. Back to you.
All right. Thanks so much, Laurie. And we should tell you that MTV.
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