‘Saturday Night Live’ Editors Reach Tentative Deal With NBC Before Strike Deadline

It should be business as usual on Saturday Night Live’s April 1 episode, as Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson makes her hosting debut on the NBC sketch comedy show. SNL’s editors have reached a tentative agreement with NBC, mitigating the threat of a planned April 1 strike.

As Deadline reports, the tentative agreement includes a three-year deal that would allow editors’ wages to grow by up to 60 percent, as well as ratification benefits and healthcare benefits. Also, editors who have tight turnarounds between shifts would be granted paid meals, hotel rooms, and transportation.

The bargaining unit will still need to ratify the agreement before it goes into effect, so a strike is still possible, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But the Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG), with which the editors are allied, recommended ratification to members.

“We are thrilled to have reached this tentative deal,” Cathy Repola, MPEG’s national executive director, said in a statement. “Thanks to the tremendous resolve of the crew, we reached a deal that represents real achievement in each of the areas our members identified as key, including dramatic improvements in wages. We’ll defer detailed public discussion of the terms until after our negotiators have had a chance to meet with the full crew to review the deal and hold a ratification vote.”

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As negotiations with NBC dragged on, the bargaining unit authorized a strike in January and scheduled the strike for April 1 earlier this month. At the end of the February 4 episode, some SNL cast members showed their support for the post-production unit, wearing “Contract Now” T-shirts for the closing credits.

Saturday Night Live has never had a show-specific strike, per Deadline, and with this tentative agreement in place, it seems that streak won’t be broken.

Saturday Night Live, Saturdays, 11:30/10:30c, NBC