Bill Maher: Striking Hollywood Writers Not Owed a Living Wage

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2023/05/19: Author David Simon, a member of the Writers Guild of
Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Paul Bois

Comedian and HBO late-night host Bill Maher said that the ongoing WGA strike came at the “wrong time,” adding that the Hollywood writers have “no leverage.”

Speaking with fellow comedian Jim Gaffigan on the Club Random podcast, Maher, whose own show Real Time on HBO was shut down due to the strike, felt that the writers had some “kooky” requests.

“They’re asking for a lot of things that are, like, kooky,” Maher said. “What I find objectionable about the philosophy of the strike [is] it seems to be, they have really morphed a long way from 2007’s strike, where they kind of believe that you’re owed a living as a writer, and you’re not. This is show business. This is the make-or-miss league.”

While Maher agreed that streaming platforms need to be more transparent with viewership data, he also believed that people are missing the “big other side” to the story in the strike, likening it to America’s growing divide.

“I feel for my writers. I love my writers. I’m one of my writers. But there’s a big other side to it,” Mahersaid. “And a lot of people are being hurt besides them — a lot of people who don’t make as much money as them in this bipartisan world we have where you’re just in one camp or the other, there’s no in between.”

“You’re either for the strike like they’re fucking Che Guevara out there, you know, like, this is Cesar Chavez’s lettuce picking strike — or you’re with Trump. There’s no difference — there’s only two camps. And it’s much more complicated than that,” he continued.

Worse still, Maher said that the writers have virtually no leverage in their fight, given that the studios and streaming services have a massive library of content they can have people watch.

“[Streamers] have tons of stuff in stock, so they have no reason to wanna settle this strike,” he said. “They struck at just the wrong time; they have no leverage. Has anyone who is watching TV recently noticed a difference? Has it affected the person down the pipeline? I don’t think so. I haven’t noticed a difference. At some point, I guess that will happen. What day is that when Netflix runs out of what they have in the warehouse?”

In response to the candid statements, certain members of the WGA strongly criticized Maher on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.

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