The Writers Guild Of America and the Hollywood studios that comprise the AMPTP have reached a tentative deal, meaning the WGA side of the months-long double-strike might soon be coming to an end. But, more important than anything, that also means that ABC can (or at least is going to) move forward with the new season of Dancing With The Stars. That’s what Deadline says, with a representative for cast member Matt Walsh noting that Dancing With The Stars will no longer be a struck show once the WGA strike is officially over, and all contestants—including Walsh—will be “able to return.”
It seems like ABC is getting a little ahead of itself, since the new season of Dancing With The Stars is apparently supposed to start tomorrow night and the WGA strike isn’t over until the union says it’s over, but whatever. Everybody seems confident that this is all going to work out, and then, finally, after several whole days of thinking it might not happen, we’ll get to see one of the guys from Veep dancing! And then hopefully he’ll do well enough that he becomes much more famous and, finally, he’ll be the guy who comes up when you google “Matt Walsh.”
This whole saga began last week when WGA members found out that the show would be launching its new season as planned, despite the fact that it regularly employs one WGA writer to punch up the banter for its hosts and was therefore a struck production. Walsh, who is a WGA member and a SAG-AFTRA member, announced that he was taking a “pause” from the show as soon as he learned it was a struck production, prompting calls for other union members in the cast—specifically Mira Sorvino and Alyson Hannigan—to follow his lead.
However, Dancing With The Stars is not covered by SAG-AFTRA, so that union had to put out a statement reminding everyone that it cannot ask its members to stop working on Dancing With The Stars, since its covered by the separate Network Code agreement and not the AMPTP one that the unions are striking against. So, Dancing With The Stars was struck and picketed by the WGA, but not SAG-AFTRA, so if the WGA agrees to this deal, there will be nothing standing in the way of Dancing With The Stars continuing on as usual.