‘Dancing With The Stars’ Rehearsal Hit With WGA Picket As Writers Target Matt Walsh, Alyson Hannigan & Mira Sorvino

Peter White and Rosy Cordero
·3 min read
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The writers are waltzing after Dancing with the Stars after all.

The ABC show has become the latest to be picketed by striking writers, with a group of around 25 picketers in West Hollywood protesting Wednesday outside of the production’s rehearsal as of 8 a.m. More are expected later today.

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The move is designed to put pressure on the BBC Studios-produced show ahead of its season premiere Tuesday. Writers are hoping that by picketing, either the network decides to reverse its decision to air it or some of the stars (which include How I Met Your Mother‘s Alyson Hannigan, Oscar winner Mira Sorvino and particularly Veep’s Matt Walsh, who is also a member of the WGA) to drop out.

The writers are targeting these stars in particular with signs with their names on them. They are also being louder than usual so that people can hear them inside the rehearsal stage on N Highland, which is above a furniture called Holly Hunt (store staff have rather sweetly been offering water to strikers).

Deadline saw a couple of large SUVs pull up to the rehearsal, see the picket and drive away.

The action comes after the likes of Drew Barrymore, Bill Maher and Jennifer Hudson as well as the hosts of The Talk all reversed course from hosting their shows during the strike.

Dancing with the Stars is a WGA show as it traditionally employs one WGA writer on its 500-person crew.

“The WGA respects all writing whether it’s a single writer on a feature film with 500 people or it’s a single writer on a TV show with 500 people; it’s all the same to us and we’re going to protect writing across the board,” one writer on the picket told Deadline.

“Dancing with the Stars is a WGA signatory show. It shouldn’t be shooting right now. ABC has no fall programming, narratively speaking, because they chose to impose this strike upon us so we want to disrupt all of their programming as much as we can so they’ll come back to the table with a reasonable offer,” the source added.

MacGyver exec producer David Slack told Deadline, “The reason that it’s so important that Dancing with the Stars not move forward with scab writing is that it encourages the studio to make the strike last longer and to hold out to see if other shows will be able to move forward with scab writing. While it may put the crew for Dancing with the Stars back to work, that’s keeping every other crew in Hollywood out of work. This economy in LA is losing $30M a day because of what the companies have chosen not to do, the path of not negotiating, that they’ve chosen.”

The show is set to film its season opener at the former CBS Television City lot on Tuesday.

Dancing With the Stars is a lynchpin of ABC’s strike-hit fall schedule. The network is leaning into reality, game shows and unscripted shows in addition to repeats of Abbott Elementary. It also struck a deal with the NFL to allow it to simulcast a slew of Monday Night Football games that also air on ESPN.

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