The Television Critics Association has officially canceled its 2023 summer tour. In an email to members, the TCA board cited the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike as the reason for its cancelation.
“Even if the guilds and studios reach agreements in the coming weeks, we’ve come to the point at which it’s no longer feasible to organize the tour, never mind plan for our own travel,” the message states. “Melanie [McFarland], Jackie [Cutler], Andy [Dehnart], and Eric [Kohanik] met with the Langham executives today, which was our extended deadline, and confirmed we could not sign a contract for this summer. The Board will move forward with plans for our January tour, and we look forward to gathering with you all in the Los Angeles area then!”
The TCA board will hold its annual meeting on Aug. 5
The Television Critics Association is a group of approximately 200 full-time professional American and Canadian journalists who specialize in writing about the television industry for newspapers, magazines, websites and other outlets.
The organization meets twice yearly in the Los Angeles area. According to the organization, an estimated 40,000 articles are published during the two-week span of the event with an additional 45,000 articles written from banked content published in the months after. The organization is also responsible for the TCA Awards, which was founded in 1984 and honors TV excellence in 11 categories.
For many, this was far from surprising news. On May 2 – the same day that the strike started – the TCA board warned its members that if the studios and the guilds did not reach an agreement in a “timely manner,” the summer tour would not be able to take place.
This also isn’t the first time the organization has faced a major hurdle outside of its control. In 2020, the organization’s summer tour was moved from in-person to virtual due to concerns and restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic. That lasted until January 2023, when TCA was finally allowed to return to normal.
The WGA strike involves a long list of concerns that the writers want Hollywood studios to address, from addressing the use of artificial intelligence to the low pay involved in writing streaming series to reining in “mini-rooms” used to skirt contractual pay practices.
While writers continue to picket, the Directors Guild of America has reached a tentative agreement in its own contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers with a vote to ratify that contract underway through June 23. In addition, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) began negotiations with AMPTP on June 7 ahead of a contract expiration on June 30. SAG-AFTRA has approved a strike authorization with a vote percentage of 97.9%, so the actors could join writers on the picket line if a deal isn’t met before that deadline.
Despite the press tour’s cancellation, the TCA Awards will continue as planned. Nominations will be announced on June 30, with winners announced publicly on Aug. 7.
For all of TheWrap’s WGA Strike coverage, click here.
