Bill Keveney

USA TODAY

Hollywood averted a potentially debilitating writers' strike early Tuesday, as the writers' union and a group of studios and networks announced they had tentatively agreed to a new three-year deal a little over an hour after the expiration of the previous pact.

The two organizations, which had been working under a self-imposed media blackout while holding talks in Los Angeles, issued a short joint statement shortly after 1:30 a.m. PT: "The Writers Guilds of America, West and East and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have concluded negotiations and have reached a tentative agreement on terms for a new three-year collective bargaining agreement."

The Writers Guild (WGA), which represents film and TV scribes, and the AMPTP, which negotiates on behalf of studios and networks, had been holding contract talks in recent weeks in an effort to reach a new deal before the expiration of the current agreement.

A vast majority of WGA members recently gave their union negotiators authorization to call a strike if no deal was reached by the time the contract ended, so writers could have been walking picket lines as early as Tuesday.

If that happened, viewers would have first noticed the effects with that evening's late-night talk shows, where Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel & Co. depend on writing staffs for monologues and sketches often tied into the day's news. Saturday Night Live, which has three episodes left this season, likely would have shut down for the season. Reruns likely would have filled those slots.

A strike would have had little influence on the conclusion of the broadcast season this month, since finale episodes have been written and filmed, and it wouldn't have had an immediate effect on the traditional September rollout of broadcast shows, since writing staffs often don't begin work on fall shows until June. As in the past, a strike would have meant more reality shows and reruns.

Contractual issues included the level of studio and network contributions to the writers’ health plan and the level of compensation for TV writers in an industry affected dramatically by changes in technology, distribution and viewing habits.

With the number of scripted TV shows hitting record levels recently, there are numerous writing jobs, but writers paid on a per-episode basis can find themselves making less as more programs, influenced by cable networks and streaming platforms such as Netflix, produce fewer series episodes in a season. Many programs now make anywhere from six to 13 episodes per season, while the traditional broadcast order had long been 22 per season.

Hovering over current contract talks were memories of the most recent WGA walkout in 2007-08, which is estimated to have cost the California economy $2 billion.

After the tentative agreement was reached Tuesday, the union negotiating committee recommended the deal to members, who must ratify it, in a message posted on the WGA website.

"We made gains in (payment) minimums across the board — as well as contribution increases to our Health Plan that should ensure its solvency for years to come," the message said. "We also made unprecedented gains on the issue of short seasons in television, winning a definition … of 2.4 weeks of work for each episodic fee. Any work beyond that span will now require additional payment for hundreds of writer-producers."

The message also listed increases in writer residuals in High-Budget SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) and, for the first time, residuals "for comedy-variety writers in Pay TV." Job protection for parental leave also was negotiated, the committee said.

The summary continued: "Did we get everything we wanted? No. Everything we deserve? Certainly not. But because we had the near-unanimous backing of you and your fellow writers, we were able to achieve a deal that will net this Guild’s members $130 million more, over the life of the contract, than the pattern we were expected to accept. That result, and that resolve, is a testament to you, your courage, and your faith in us as your representatives."

The absence of original episodes of broadcast and cable programs that would have accompanied a strike might have accelerated the ongoing flight from traditional TV distribution formats, as more people are cutting the cable cord..

Now, as long as the agreement is ratified, viewers, perhaps breathing a sigh of relief, can go back to their regular programming.