There is no agreement yet, but talks are likely to take place at the end of the week – the deadline

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(Updated with WGA statement) Top Writers Guild executives and studio executives were working Friday night to hammer out a deal to end the writers’ strike, but it appears they’re not there yet.

The third day of face-to-face talks between the WGA negotiating committee and the heads of Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery, which ran from approximately 11 a.m. to 8:45 p.m., ended without a tentative agreement for a new three-year contract. While the two sides were able to reach agreement on a number of issues, a mutually acceptable solution on issues like artificial intelligence and minimum staffing levels in writers’ rooms has eluded negotiators so far, we’ve heard.

However, while nothing is etched in stone, it appears that Bob Iger, Donna Langley, Ted Sarandos, David Zaslav and the other directors are open to meeting again sometime over the weekend. In fact, Gang of Four CEO, AMPTP President Carole Lombardini and the WGA’s Elaine Stutzman, David Goodman and Chris Keyser will be sitting down again as soon as it looks like tomorrow.

“The WGA and AMPTP met to bargain on Friday and will meet again on Saturday,” the union confirmed in a memo sent to members at 9:41 p.m. “Thank you for the amazing show of support on the picket lines today! It means a lot to us as we continue to work toward a deal the writers deserve.”

There is a determination to get it done before [Jewish] “Holiday,” an insider told Deadline of the momentum behind the talks taking place sooner rather than later. Yom Kippur runs from sunset on Sunday, September 24, to sunset on Monday, September 25 this year.

After 100 days of no talks after the WGA called its first strike in 15 years on May 2, the fact that the Gang of Four’s chief executive was directly involved this week was already a leap forward. The speed with which deliberations collapsed in August and quickly failed made it clear that Iger, Langley, Sarandos, and Zaslav needed to be in the room this time to discuss the WGA’s proposals directly.

The gridlock is certainly frustrating to those in the room at AMPTP’s Sherman Oaks offices, those on the picket lines today, and nearly everyone else in Los Angeles County who’s been hit hard economically, but this latest gamble shouldn’t come as a surprise move. Business negotiations are often smooth, even more so in this case where 20^y The 21st century formula for labor relations is shifting to the 21st century formula^street A real-time talent relations agenda of the century in a vastly changing industry.

Case in point: On the afternoon of September 21, the CEOs and WGA team expected that they would close the talks at approximately 4:30 PM PT without reaching a final agreement. The plan circulated was for everyone to return on September 26. The fact that the parties decided to continue talks on Thursday night was more a useful byproduct of momentum than scheduling.

After a bit of a slow burn this morning, a lot of the momentum from last night was coming back, but with some complicated numbers and mechanics, it wasn’t enough to get us over the finish line.

If, with a short overnight break, this can be repeated by the CEOs and WGA negotiators tomorrow or before sunset on Sunday, this strike could end within two weeks after members ratify it. The exact details of how the strike would end and when the writers would return to work were a topic of discussion in the negotiations.

As it stands, with almost no production due to the WGA strike, and the prolonged SAG-AFTRA strike, the finances of entertainment industry workers are taking a severe hit and this is affecting the industry as a whole. This weekend’s box office is expected to hit an all-time low for 2023, under the February 10-12 take of $52.6 million.

More broadly, California, and Los Angeles County specifically, is seeing an estimated $5 billion hit from strikes. It wasn’t just people in the entertainment industry; Restaurant workers, the trucking industry, support houses, and lumber providers are also feeling the impact on their wallets, and the fallout will hit government coffers as well.

Now at 144^y The next day, the WGA strike is fast approaching the longest writers’ strike: the 154 days they struck in 1988. SAG-AFTRA, which will have to reach its own deal with the AMPTP once the WGA settles, has currently been on strike for 71 days.