The unions, comprised of the East and West Coast branches of the Writers Guild of America, have said that compensation for writers has stayed the same over the last decade despite the rising popularity of streaming and demand for television series, the US media detailed on Monday.
"WGA members have authorized a strike by 97.85%," Writers Guild of America tweeted. "Writers are ready for a deal from the studios that allows writers to share in the success of the content they create and build a stable life."
Talks between writers and studios have reportedly made little progress, even with the current contract set to expire in less than two weeks, and in an email sent by negotiators to the writers, the negotiating committee said the studios have allegedly not offered adequate responses to the economic issues raised by writers.
Recently, Hollywood bigwigs have been readying to produce some reality television, which does not require script writers - indicating executives are expecting a strike and preparing themselves, the report said. Though, a strike authorization is no guarantee that a walkout is imminent.
However, if a strike does happen, talk shows hosted by the likes of Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers will reportedly go off-air immediately. It's said that it would be a while before viewers at home started to notice the impacts.
The last time Hollywood writers held a strike was in 2007, which lasted for 100 days and cost an estimated $2.1 billion in lost revenue.