Degrassi Cast And Writers Revealed They've Made Zero Residuals From Streaming

One of my favorite shows growing up was Degrassi: The Next Generation. It's also the franchise that would eventually give us one of the biggest rappers in hip hop.

However, the cast and writers are speaking out against the corporate vampires that are making hand over fist from the show, while the people who participated in the long-running franchise don't make a dime from streaming.

via Complex:

As the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes continue, many writers and actors have taken to social media to show just how little they’ve made off royalties since the pivot to streaming began.

Sean Reycraft, one of the writers of Degrassi, took to Twitter to show that he made nothing off of the reruns of the show that aired across three individual networks on Christmas Day.

“Christmas Day, there were marathons of the season I’d written for (the season Drake was shot) running across THREE SEPARATE NETWORKS. We see zip,” Reycraft wrote.

Reycraft quoted a tweet from veteran Degrassi actor Jake Goldbie, who played Toby Isaacs for nearly a decade, that explained that after Amazon acquired the rights to Degrassi, they posted multiple ads for the show which ultimately leads to no money going the actors’ or the writers’ way.

Goldsbie’s comments stemmed from a video in which Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul critized streaming services for not issuing any form of residuals when paying for the rights to shows.

Another Degrassi actor, Ephraim Ellis, agreed with Goldsbie. As did other Degrassi alums.

While there doesn’t seem to be a clear end in sight for the strikes, many of the biggest actors have supported the strike with actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, and George Clooney donating $1 million to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Financial Assistance Program.

The system is broken. Pay actors what they deserve.