The MTV Movie & TV Awards are the latest show affected by the Hollywood writers strike.
MTV said Friday the show will no longer air live on Sunday, May 7, and will instead be pre-taped.
The announcement came just hours after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) posted an alert on Twitter, announcing its members would picket the awards at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif.
“As we carefully navigate how best to deliver the fan first awards’ show we envisioned that our team has worked so hard to create, we’re pivoting away from a live event that still enables us to produce a memorable night full of exclusive sneak peeks, irreverent categories our audience has come to expect and countless moments that will both surprise and delight as we honor the best of film and TV over the past year,” Bruce Gillmer, executive producer of the MTV Movie & TV Awards, said in a statement.
Related Story: Gina Prince-Bythewood and Drew Barrymore Show Solidarity With WGA Writers Strike
Following MTV’s announcement that it was ditching the live show, the WGA told its members not to bother heading out to Santa Monica.
“WGA’s picket of the MTV Movie & Video Awards has been cancelled,” read a Tweet posted Friday at 7:22 p.m. PT.
A day earlier, Drew Barrymore announced she was stepping down as host of the awards in solidarity with the strike.
The WGA launched the strike on Tuesday, May 2, after contract talks with the major studios and streamers over higher pay and the role of artificial intelligence in screenwriting projects broke down.
The guild represents 11,500 television and film writers in Los Angeles, New York and other cities.
The WGA accused the studios of “devaluing” writing as a profession and turning writers into “gig workers” or freelancers, who hustle from job to job.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios, issued a statement Monday saying it made a “generous” offer, which was rejected by the WGA.
As previously reported, the strike has disrupted production on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night With Seth Meyers, and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.
This weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live, which former SNL cast member Pete Davidson was scheduled to host, has also been canceled. Lil Uzi Vert was booked as the musical guest.
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