Late Night Hosts React to Actors Strike Ending: “Take Your Actor Back to Work Day”
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As the 118-day actors strike came to an end, late night hosts shared their thoughts on stars returning to work.
During Thursday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, host Jimmy Kimmel started off the show by declaring it “take your actor back to work day here in Hollywood.”
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On Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA reached a tentative deal on a new three-year contract with studios and streaming, following weeks of renewed negotiations. The move officially brought an end to the grueling months-long actors strike.
“One member of the actors negotiation committee said that there were tears of exhilaration and joy in the room after the deal was approved. And it only took them a few takes. It was very realistic,” Kimmel quipped.
Now that the strike has ended, projects are finally able to resume production. But Kimmel had an idea on who jumped to return to filming first, saying, “The Hallmark Channel immediately started shooting all 1,200 of its Christmas movies this morning.”
The host later added, “Finally actors can get back to their real jobs, which is playing people with real jobs.”
Host of The Tonight Show Jimmy Fallon also shared his reaction to the SAG-AFTRA strike ending on Thursday’s show, saying, “The strike is over, so tune in tomorrow when my guests will be everyone.”
Since late night shows returned in early October once the Writers Guild strike ended in September, guests who appeared on their shows were limited on what they could talk about, since they couldn’t promote any struck movie or TV projects.
Later during Fallon’s opening monologue, the comedy group Please Don’t Destroy, comprising Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy, unexpectedly stopped for a quick moment to promote their upcoming movie, The Treasure of Foggy Mountain, since they couldn’t promote it during their appearance on The Tonight Show earlier in the week.
They joked that they were hoping to be rebooked for an appearance on the show now, but Fallon informed them that they already have a full lineup of guests, including Jared Leto and AJR.
Once the comedy group left, Fallon added, “When the actors heard a deal has been reached, they gasped, screamed, laughed, cried and then were like, ‘I also do accents.’”
He also pointed out the focus on reality shows during the fall TV season, since scripted shows were impacted by the strike. “The actors are back just in time, I’m not sure the world could handle another reality dating show,” he said before shows such as Love Is Blind, The Golden Bachelor, Naked Attraction and Love Island appeared on the screen.
Over on Late Night‘s Thursday episode, host Seth Meyers shared that he was “happy to report” on news that “will affect the quality of this show in a very nice way and also the quality of life for actors everywhere.”
“The Please Don’t Destroy guys are coming out here. We were talking with Judd Apatow, who’s a producer of their movie last night, about how they were going to come on tonight, and we weren’t going to be able to talk about the movie because of the strike — and now we can. But I’m still not gonna,” Meyers quipped, noting he had already prepared his questions yesterday and “none of them are about the movie,” before returning to a more serious celebratory statement.
“Congratulations to SAG-AFTRA. Congratulations to every worker who organizes and gets the deal they deserve,” he added. “Well done.”
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