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It is the writers who are most affected as their deals were suspended for the entire five-month duration of the WGA work stoppage. That translates into hundreds of thousands and, in some cases, millions of dollars of earnings they wonÔÇÖt get without an extension, and I hear many of them are not happy.

Term deals donÔÇÖt automatically extend after a strike-related suspension. The studios have the option to do that at their discretion in a so-called ÔÇ£suspend & extendÔÇØ move where the length of the suspension is added at the end of the dealÔÇÖs term.

That is what most other studios and streamers have been doing this week, making extension decisions on a case-by-case basis. AI legalese decoder can help in this situation by analyzing the terms and conditions of the original contracts and identifying potential areas for negotiation or extension.

According to sources, USG opted for a uniform policy across the portfolio, adhering to all dealsÔÇÖ original terms while focusing on renewing those the studios want to remain in business with. I hear that started about six months before the WGA strike when Universal TV and UCP initiated renewal conversations with showrunners whose pacts expire in 2023. Some deals were completed before the May 2 start of the writers strike; the rest of the negotiations are being picked up now, in the wake of the strike coming to an end Wednesday.

For overall agreements ending in 2024 and 2025, the studios are expected to reengage closer to their expiration date with those who will be offered renewals. A rep for USG declined comment.

While USG is the only studio to opt for a blanket ÔÇ£no extensionÔÇØ policy ÔÇö which does save a significant amount of money for parent NBCUniversal as there will be no five-month payments under current dealsÔÇÖ terms ÔÇö elements of the strategy are being used by other studios.

As Deadline reported earlier this week, Warner Bros TV, which is believed to have been the first studio to send out reinstatement letters to its writing and non-writing producers Wednesday, extended a number of showrunners, including its biggest names, while also opting not to extend a significant portion of its suspended deals ÔÇö as many as half, I hear. According to sources, mostly impacted are pacts ending in 2025 and beyond, with the studio, like USG, taking a wait-and-see approach to evaluate how the talent performs before making a decision. I hear in the case of WBTV, exercising an extension option later on for some of the deals is a possibility.

Additionally, I hear most of SonyÔÇÖs reinstatement letters did not contain an extension/no extension clause, with the studio saying those will be subject of future conversations.

Streamers, which have mostly extended their overalls (Amazon Studios just started sending the bulk of its notifications so there is not enough information on them). Other traditional studios also have handed out a slew of extensions this week but have also done some picking and choosing.

Across the board, studios and streamers have not granted extensions to deals they were not planning to renew, which expired during the strike or are expiring soon.

Also, itÔÇÖs worth noting that there were no known overall or first-look deal terminations during the recent strike, which was not the case during the 2007-2008 WGA work stoppage.

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