The governing boards approved a tentative agreement of its negotiators with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) on Sunday. Guild leaders voted unanimously to ask members to decide on ratifying the contract and ending the walkout, and now it's up to members to approve the deal and effectively end the strike. Until that happens, the strike remains in effect.

"This is the best deal this guild has bargained for in 30 years, after the most successful strike this guild has waged in 35 years," WGA West president Patric Verrone said.

Since the strike began, the WGA stated several times that they would only sign an agreement that gives TV and film writers a percentage of the residuals from DVD sales and Internet downloads of programs, a market that has been raking in billions of dollars and that producers, studio heads and actors already receive.

"There comes a time in any strike when it is time to settle, and that time is when the pressure is greatest on both sides," said David J. Young, executive director of the West Coast guild, to New York Times.

The governing boards' endorsement paves the way for writers to return to work on Wednesday, pending a vote by the guild's membership to lift the strike order on Tuesday, but writers can return tomorrow to work as producers. Member approval of the contract and an end to the strike is more than likely.

A draft of the three-year deal was reached a few days back, but it took a few more days for lawyers from both sides to pen the actual contract, which was done Friday. Around 300 strike captains have taken a look at the draft the same day, with most of them considering the deal fair with just a few hardliners arguing that more could be achieved.

Rumors of the deal have been swirling since last weekend, while Oscar organizers said they were running out of time in the search for a deal to avoid the ceremony from being affected by the strike. Last month’s Golden Globes was reduced to a press conference after the A-list nominees refused to cross the picket line and attend the glittering ceremony.

This year’s 80th edition of the Academy Awards is due to take place on February 24. Fears of the prestigious awards' cancellation have now finally subsided. The Oscars were postponed only three times in the Academy history: first was in 1938 due to floods, than in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and in 1981 before the assassination attempt on President Reagan.

The WGA strike began at one minute after midnight on Nov. 5, marking the first strike in 20 years, after representatives for the 12,000 members of the WGA failed to reach an agreement with TV and film producers on a new contract.