Saturday Night Live CANCELED this weekend due to WGA writers strike - as Pete ... trends now

Saturday Night Live has shut down amid a strike from the Writers Guild of America, the first in 15 years.

This week's edition of the NBC stalwart, slated to air May 6, was set to feature alum Pete Davidson as host for the first time.

The series will air reruns for the foreseeable future amid the labor dispute in the entertainment industry, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

The shutdown comes as thousands of Hollywood writers have closed their laptops and began their strike, leaving viewers to wonder what will happen to their favorite shows.

From late night shows to reality television and movies, the strike over a dispute about the writers' low pay in the streaming era could have a significant impact what millions of viewers watch every day.

The most immediate effect of the strike viewers are likely to notice will be on late-night shows and SNL. All are expected to immediately go dark. 

The Writers Guild of America launched the strike on Tuesday sending nearly 12,000 unionized screenwriters to the picket line for the first time since 2008.

The labor dispute could have a cascading effect on TV and film productions depending on how long the strike lasts, and it comes as streaming services are under growing pressure from Wall Street to show profits. 

The Writers Guild of America's screenwriters prepared to picket after negotiations with studios, which began in March, failed by Monday's deadline to yield a new contract. All script writing is to immediately cease, the guild informed its members.

The guild is seeking higher minimum pay, less thinly staffed writing rooms, shorter exclusive contracts and a reworking of residual pay - all conditions the WGA says have been diminished in the content boom driven by streaming.

So what does this mean for your favorite shows? 

With a walkout long expected, writers have rushed to get scripts in and studios have sought to prepare their pipelines to keep churning out content for at least the short term.

'We're assuming the worst from a business perspective,' David Zaslav, chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, said last month. 'We've got ourselves ready. We've had a lot of content that's been produced.'

Overseas series could also fill some of the void. 

'If there is one, we have a large base of upcoming shows and films from around the world,' said Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-chief executive, on the company's earnings call in April.

Late-night shows   

All are expected to immediately go dark. 

SNL fully relies on its writers as its scripted in the days and sometimes mere hours before it airs. 

It's possible the three shows slated for May, including the season finale, would be canceled and they would replaced with reruns like was done in 2007. 

On Friday's episode of Late Night, Seth Meyers, a WGA member who said he supported the union's demands, prepared viewers for reruns while lamenting the hardship a strike entails.

'It doesn't just affect the writers, it affects all the incredible non-writing staff on these shows,' Meyers said. 

'And it would really be a miserable thing for people to have to go through, especially considering we're on the heels of that awful pandemic that affected, not just show business, but all of us.'

During the 2007 strike, late-night hosts eventually returned to the air and improvised material. 

Jay Leno, then host of The Tonight Show, wrote his own monologues, a move that angered union leadership.

Game shows

Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune could be affected because guild writers are used to write the clues. 

However, the shows are taped months in advance, so unless the

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