EXCLUSIVE: Sky is speaking with distributors about how to overcome the loss of four of the biggest U.S. late-night talk shows due to the writers strike.
NBC double The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers, along with HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Real Time With Bill Maher, all air on Sky soon after U.S. premiere., with the pay-TV network putting them out in late night slots on its Sky Comedy linear channel. Sky is owned by NBC-owner Comcast and has licensing deals in place with HBO.
Fallon’s show will go dark tonight while final decisions on the immediate future of the other three are expected later this week.
Deadline understands Sky is speaking to distributors about the impact as it is forced to potentially uproot its late night schedules over the coming weeks. Sky will likely either pivot to re-runs of the late-night shows or replace them with older scripted fare, it is understood. The Sky Comedy channel shows repeats of multiple U.S. shows including And Just Like That… and The Office.
The other major late-night U.S. talk shows are either watchable in the UK via Paramount+ or are not available.
Late-night shows are the quickest to have been impacted by the strike, which was made official this morning and is the first in the U.S. for 15 years. The Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show, Late Night and The Daily Show are all expected to pivot to re-runs in the U.S.
One of the issues in this year’s negotiation between the U.S. writers guild and the studios has also surrounded late-night shows on streaming. As it stands, writers who work on “comedy variety programs made for new media,” such as Peacock’s The Amber Ruffin Show, do not qualify for Minimum Basic Agreements, something the WGA has been fighting for.
