After four (!!) months, the SAG-AFTRA strike has ended. There is a lot to unpack about the contract, but I will let the showbiz experts (read: not me) handle that. For our purposes, there are a few key ways podcasting is affected.
The most immediate impact will be on the rewatch podcasts, which can finally resume business as normal. As Amrita Khalid reported this summer, TV rewatch podcasts hosted by shows’ former cast members counted as “promotion” and were therefore struck. After a long lull, we can expect a deluge of rewatch content in the coming weeks. (Christy Carlson Romano, for one, is very excited.)
These shows, many of which regularly rank in the top podcasts on Spotify and Apple, handled the strike in a number of different ways. The Always Sunny Podcast simply has not published an episode since the strike began. Office Ladies banked a number of episodes and managed to publish right to the end of the strike, adding a disclaimer at the beginning of every episode that the recording took place pre-strike. Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald refrained from recapping past Scrubs episodes and instead focused on interviews. It is also only fitting that It’s Not Only Football: Friday Night Lights and Beyond got derailed by the strike, much like its show of origin, and had to pivot to everyday chat until the season ended in September. I hope for me and the other FNL girlies that it comes back.
