Neil Patrick Harris variety show under threat of writers’ strike
WGA unhappy with non-union writers being hired for 2015 variety show hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.
- Published by David Knox
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A 2015 NBC variety show fronted by Neil Patrick Harris is facing a writers’ strike unless its producers sign a contract with the Writers Guild of America.
The 10 episode variety show, based on UK’s Saturday Night Takeaway, will be produced by ITV Studios America, which hasn’t signed a contract with the guild and has been locked in a bitter dispute with the union over reality shows it produces in the U.S.
In June the union accused the company of working its non-union writers and producers in “sweatshop conditions.”
Deadline reports WGA East Executive Director Lowell Peterson has “already alerted our many hundreds of comedy-variety members to the fact that ITV is fighting the guild and will not agree to the standard terms of a collective bargaining agreement with us.”
Harris, who is also one of the show’s executive producers, then tweeted:
Know this: my variety show will absolutely be crafted by union writers. I’ve been assured by ITV that it will be a WGA show. Period.
— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) November 5, 2014
Harris also hosted the 2009 WGA West’s own awards show.
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- Tagged with Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
2 Responses
I agree Brekkie, I’ve never understood how in the States you can be forced into joining a union.
Ridiculous that in the “land of the free” the WGA will stop writers who do not want to be part of their union from working.