Warner Bros. suspends top overall deals, with Berlanti, Abrams & Bill Lawrence among those affected

Ted Lasso

Having recently admitted that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes will cost it up to $500m, Warner Bros. Discovery’s TV division has suspended overall deals with talent including Greg Berlanti and JJ Abrams.

Warner Bros. Television Group’s move will see pacts with Ted Lasso‘s Bill Lawrence, Maid’s John Wells and Sex Lives Of College Girls‘ Mindy Kaling all put on hold, in addition to Berlanti and Abrams.

WBD’s deal with The Big Bang Theory‘s Chuck Lorre has also been suspended, with US reports suggesting that decision came in May as the WGA strike first took hold.

WBTVG and other US studios had already suspended numerous overall and first-look deals with lower level talent during the early days of the WGA strike, which is now into its fourth month.

The deals have, however, not been cancelled because the studios will need to get production up and running quickly once agreements are struck and strikes end.

An SEC filing published yesterday highlighted the financial cost of the strikes to the US studios, with WBD admitting that if production does not resume before the end of the year, it expects its 2023 earnings to be somewhere between $300m and $500m lower than originally forecast, although the studios are making considerable savings on costs with all productions put on hold.