ABC putting plans in place to possibly delay 'DWTS' season premiere amid ongoing Hollywood strikes
ABC is putting plans in place to possibly postpone next week's Season 32 premiere of "Dancing with the Stars" amid the ongoing strike involving screenwriters and Hollywood studios.
One competitor, actor Matt Walsh, has bowed out of the reality show while the strike is still underway. He released the following statement:
I am taking a pause from Dancing with the Stars until an agreement is made with the WGA. I was excited to join the show and did so under the impression that it was not a WGA show and fell under a different agreement. This morning when I was informed by my union, the WGA, that it is considered struck work I walked out of my rehearsal. I have been and will always stand with my union members of the WGA, SAG and DGA. Beyond our union artists, I am sensitive to the many people impacted by the strike and I hope for a speedy and fair resolution, and to one day work again with all the wonderful people I met at DWTS who tolerated my dancing.
"Dancing with the Stars" is covered by the Writers Guild of America because it employs one WGA writer. However, the show employs roughly 500 staff members in total, including crew members and producers.
Several of the performers on "DWTS" are all cleared to work on the show under SAG-AFTRA's "Network Code" agreement, which is not part of the current strike.
"Dancing with the Stars" was set to debut with a 2.5-hour premiere next Tuesday.
Meantime, Hollywood studios and striking screenwriters are resuming negotiations for the second consecutive day Thursday. The talks could potentially put an end to the nearly five-month dispute that has brought many film and television productions to a halt.
The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since May, joined in July by the actors union, SAG-AFTRA.
The WGA and the studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, did not comment on how talks went Wednesday. But some reports indicate that they are closer to finalizing a deal that could end the writers' strike.
Negotiators met with the heads of four major studios - Ted Sarandos of Netflix, David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery, Donna Langley of Universal Pictures, and Bob Iger, the CEO of this station's parent company Disney.
MORE: 'DWTS' season 32 cast revealed
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
