Hollywood writers strike leads to temporary cancellation of every late night US talk show

Late night shows in America have been pulled off the air due to the Hollywood writers strike.

After months of negotiation over pay, the union, representing 11,500 writers of film, television and other entertainment forms, will take action from Tuesday (2 May).

This means talk show hosts, including Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert, will not be recording episodes of their shows, which will go dark until an agreement is reached.

Guests whose appearances have been cancelled include Melissa McCarthy, Will Poulter and Barry star Anthony Carrigan for Kimmel, while Fallon was set to welcome Ken Jeong, Jennifer Lopez and Elle Fanning.

Meanwhile, Colbert would have interviewed Citadel star Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Michael J Fox and Shonda Rhimes.

While unconfirmed, networks are expected to show repeats of past Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show, The Daily Show and Late Night broadcasts in place of a new episode.

Meyers supported writers decision to strike on Monday (1 May), stating: “I love writing. I love writing for TV. I love writing this show. I love that we get to come in with an idea for what we want to do every day and we get to work on it all afternoon and then I have the pleasure of coming out here.

“No one is entitled to a job in show business. But for those people who have a job, they are entitled to fair compensation. They are entitled to make a living. I think it’s a very reasonable demand that’s being set out by the guild. And I support those demands.”

This is the first writers’ strike, and the first Hollywood strike of any kind, in 15 years.

If the strike continues into the weekend, weekly sketch show Saturday Night Live, which is due to be hosted by Pete Davidson, will not proceed as normal.