One of the Writers Guild’s Biggest Contract Negotiation Issues Is the ‘Mini Room’ Boom

variety.com:

Variety said they do not see as many issues with the first scenario as with the second. But in both cases — if the show doesn’t get a greenlight or renewal — it can tie up writers for as long as eight to 10 weeks, during which time they can’t take other jobs.

Even if the series does get ordered, the mini room writers often will not continue with the show, especially if the total episode order is 10 or less. “We’ve had situations with mini rooms where they have given us a lot of great information, and we’ve had other situations where the pilot script has been great but the other two scripts have not been great and the shows have hung themselves, basically, by requesting a mini room,” an exec says.

The issues with both scenarios, however, are significantly more pronounced for newer writers. Not only are newer writers less likely to get staffed in a mini room, but even if they do, they will only make scale.

In the WGA’s view, this has led to an overall depression of writer pay rates as mini rooms become more common. In addition, writers will struggle to advance to showrunner if they don’t get the chance to be involved in the production and post-production process. “It’s wild to me that the first 10 weeks of breaking a show are the most important,” “Abbott Elementary” and “Harley Quinn” executive producer Justin Halpern (also a WGA board member) recently told Variety. “And to think that those are the weeks we get paid minimum, and maybe we don’t even get to go on with the show.