As the strike progresses, soap opera actors and some other daytime TV workers will be ‘legally bound’ to their jobs due to their Netcode contracts.
Hollywood may be largely shut down, but your favorite soap operas are sticking around…for now.
With the Screen Actors Guild officially on strike Thursday, viewers can expect to notice a shift in their favorite programming. But that won’t necessarily be the case for daytime soap operas, unscripted reality TV, game shows and news programs, which operate under a different contract.
Although daytime actors are part of SAG-AFTRA – the union that includes the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists – they will continue to work during the strike as they are employed under the Code SAG-AFTRA Fair Practices National. for network television broadcasting, also known as Network Code or Netcode.
By The Hollywood Reporter, the Netcode covers unscripted, non-primetime programming, including soap operas. Some of the programs with contracts under the code include general hospital, days of our lives, The young and the restless And Love glory and beauty. Their contracts will run until July 2024.
Related: Hollywood Actors Go On Strike After Unanimous Vote: ‘Left Us With No Alternative’
Until then, all four soap operas will be able to remain in production for the foreseeable future and have already found creative ways to circumvent the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, such as hiring non-WGA scribes.
Since soap operas are shot weeks to months in advance, programs stockpiled scripts that may have helped cushion the effects of the writer’s strike.
In the meantime, many streaming services will continue to release content, but they will no longer be able to release new episodes of scripted content once previously filmed episodes run out. (The cast of Peacock’s day of our lives fall under the Netcode contract, and the show’s movies are further along than the other three daytime soap operas, so the WGA strike is unlikely to affect production for months to come.)
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Following the news of Thursday’s strikegeneral hospital Star Nancy Lee Grahn shared her solidarity with the actors who are part of SAG-AFTRA in a post on Instagram.
“As most of you must know by now, all SAG-AFTRA cast members are now on strike,” she captioned a video of SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher giving an impassioned speech. on the strike. “What you may not know is that daytime actors are members of SAG-AFTRA but work under a different contract called Netcode.”
She continued: “While we fully support our union and its determined efforts for fair and just working conditions, we are legally bound to fulfill the obligations of our contract. We will work throughout this strike while remaining united. with our union.
Related: Fran Drescher Says Actors Are “Victimized” By "Greedy Entity" in Burning Speech on Hollywood Strike
SAG-AFTRA voted unanimously to order a strike on Thursday after contract talks could not be concluded with the Alliance of Film and Television Producers.
The union follows the Writers Guild of America, which began striking in May. The last time the two unions went on strike simultaneously was in 1960, when the SAG was led by future US President Ronald Reagan.
At a press conference, Drescher and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director and chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, said the studios “leave us no alternative” but to strike.
Drescher said in his speech that “the whole business model has been changed by streaming, digital, AI.” She added: “It is a very big problem and it weighed heavily on us. we’re not going to take it anymore.'”
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“The jitter is up…. We demand respect,” she continued. “You share the wealth, because you cannot exist without us.”
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