The 2007-08 Writer's Strike Thread [Archive] - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Brent88

11-02-2007, 10:16 PM

UPDATE: In a last-ditch attempt to avert a strike, the Writers Guild of America will return to the negotiating table Sunday morning to meet with studios and networks.

News of the meeting emerged late Friday afternoon, a few hours after the WGA announced that its 12,000 members will go on strike Monday against studios and networks in the first major work stoppage in two decades.

The 10 a.m. Sunday meeting was called at the behest of federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez.

After a fall launch that's left everyone a bit bruised, network execs hoped to see a bit of healing come January -- but a writers' strike now threatens to leave them even more bloodied.

The strike - set to begin just after midnight on Monday - couldn't come at a worse time for the broadcast webs. This fall, success stories have been few and far between, and increased DVR usage is challenging the way networks, advertisers and pop culture arbiters evaluate the performance of new shows and returning tentpoles.

Digital downloads, Internet streaming, ever-more competish from cable originals, and Web and vidgame options are among the countless reasons thrown out as contributing to primetime's season of discontent. And while no one seems to have a magic formula for reversing the trend of declining primetime ratings, just about every one in the biz agrees that a strike -- and the loss of original, scripted skeins for the time being -- will only make things worse.

"It's been an abysmal season," says one entertainment president. "What ultimately worries me about a strike is, are we hastening the narrowing of network TV? If we have to put up a sign that says 'gone fishing,' luring viewers back is going to be even more difficult."

January is when old reliables like "American Idol,'' "24" and "Lost'' (which is expected to bow by the first week of February) could inject a little more life into the 2007-08 campaign, and the period when the networks will launch a slew of reality shows, any one of which could turn out to be the next game-changer. It's also the point at which most scripted skeins will run out of fresh episodes if the writers continue to strike into the new year.

Although there were no instant smashes out of the gate, this hasn't been a complete disaster of a fall: ABC has reason to crow, with several new shows looking like winners, including "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff "Private Practice" and the critically lauded "Pushing Daisies." And with fewer baseball playoff games breaking up its primetime sked in October, Fox was able to improve its fall fortunes even without a new breakout hit, ranking as the only Big Four web to post year-to-year gains among young adults.

But elsewhere, several of the new shows people were talking about heading into fall -- think "Bionic Woman,'' "Reaper,'' "Cavemen'' and "Viva Laughlin'' -- have been disappointing enough to make execs ready for a midseason "do over."

And whether they want it or not, that's exactly what a strike may deliver. Here's a network-by-network look at the state of the primetime biz heading into midseason and what the webs have coming up for the rest of the year, no matter what plot twists may come from the Writers Guild of America's white-knuckle contract negotiations with Hollywood's majors.

ABC

The season so far: Net has managed to come up with several promising freshman: "Private Practice," "Samantha Who" and "Pushing Daisies" are looking like keepers, while "Dirty Sexy Money" and "Women's Murder Club" could also be around for the long haul.

Jury's still out on "Big Shots" and "Carpoolers," while things are looking grim for "Cavemen." Among returnees, "Grey's Anatomy" remains TV's top-rated series in the adults 18-49 demo, while "Dancing With the Stars" continues to shine.

Midseason gameplan: ABC has bulked up for midseason, with a hefty bench of reality and scripted shows. Some of them are already set to bow this month: new drama "Cashmere Mafia," and the return of last year's midseason entries "Notes From the Underbelly" and "October Road."

In January, ABC will bridge the gap between "Dancing With the Stars" cycles with the spinoff "Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann." Then, in early February comes a significant piece of the Alphabet's primetime puzzle: "Lost."

Where "Lost" might wind up its fourth season is the subject of debate (logical spots would be Tuesday or Wednesday at 10 p.m., with either "Boston Legal" or "Dirty Sexy Money" taking a rest), as ABC's Wednesday night lineup is working well even without the show that has been its anchor on the night for the past three seasons.

Other midseason shows on the shelf include comedies "According to Jim" and "Miss/Guided," new drama "Eli Stone," and reality skeins such as "Oprah Winfrey's The Big Give," "Wife Swap," "Supernanny," "Wanna Bet," "Just for Laughs," "Here Come the Newlyweds" and "Duel."

Contingency plans: Given its fall successes, ABC potentially has the most to lose in the event of a long strike, at least when it comes to momentum.

Nonetheless, the mantra is to operate as normally as possible, even if most of its scripted shows are forced into repeats. Alphabet execs would prefer to keep their signature shows on the air, rather than confuse viewers further by bringing in cable originals or other imported fare.

"We're not going to do anything we wouldn't do if there wasn't a strike," one exec says. "Reruns don't do much better than repurposed fare anyway."

Of course, ABC was looking at the highly anticipated promise of 16 uninterrupted "Lost" episodes to give it a big midseason boost.

That pledge could be shortened, as only eight episodes will be ready to go by January. But rather than wait, ABC will still air what it has, as scheduled.

"It's better to come on with some season than no season," one insider says. "If there's a strike we'll need scripted programming."

CBS

The season so far: "The Big Bang Theory" has emerged as a solid comedy success, and Friday newcomer "Moonlight" is doing OK numbers. And as always, Eye has few craters -- especially after the quick cancellation of "Viva Laughlin."

"We have some bright spots and competitively, as we do most years, we feel good about our position," says CBS scheduling supremo Kelly Kahl.

Still, the net's bid to diversify its sked hasn't been well-executed. "Laughlin" was an instant dud, "Cane" has been a non-starter and "Kid Nation" wasn't the gamechanger CBS was looking for in reality (though credit the Eye with toughing it out).

Midseason gameplan: After the quick fade of "Laughlin," the net's already gone to its bench for "The Amazing Race," which should bring some stability to Sundays starting this week. Come January, it'll have to fill Wednesday's "Kid Nation" timeslot, and, for a few weeks, the Thursday 8 p.m. slot normally occupied by "Survivor." By March, it'll also need to replace "Amazing Race."

Net still has two more wildcards to play this season: edgy new drama "Swingtown" and the return of "Jericho." Both skeins fit into entertainment prexy Nina Tassler's mission of change, but skedding both will be a challenge.

"Jericho," which won't be back until January at the earliest, could return to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, though that means facing "American Idol" on some weeks. Sunday nights are an option, too.

As for "Swingtown," 10 p.m. on Sunday or Tuesday nights are the most likely options, assuming the net is brave enough to put the show about '70s swingers on the air.

With Monday's comedy block working, Eye might want to leave things alone there. That means a possible new comedy night built around midseason returnee "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and newcomer "The Captain."

Contingency plans: Look for CBS News producer Susan Zirinsky ("48 Hours Mystery") to be pressed into duty, filling numerous hours with specials. And the Eye is hoping its crime dramas still repeat well (they've been slipping a bit lately).

CBS reality czar Ghen Maynard has been stocking the shelves with reality and gameshow contenders, including new episodes of "Power of 10" and the Regis Philbin-hosted "Million Dollar Password."

Then there's "Big Brother." Summer staple could easily return as soon as March -- maybe even with a long-rumored celebrity edition.

Launching a new comedy night might be easier. CBS could use "Two and a Half Men" repeats to help build a new half-hour beachhead. And a newcomer like "Swingtown" might have a better shot of getting sampled in a strike atmosphere.

"If you're a new show with completed episodes and you can get on the air against mostly repeats, it could give you a leg up," Kahl says.

Fox

The season so far: Net has been buoyed by the strength of its Tuesday combo of "Bones" and "House," as well as its Sunday animated comedies. A lighter baseball sked (playoff games are now split with TBS) also helped; as a result, Fox's ratings are up by double-digits vs. last year.

Net was also assisted by the fact that it mostly eschewed launching new shows in the fall. Just two frosh scripted skeins bowed: "K-Ville," which remains on the bubble, and "Back to You," which has posted so-so numbers but has been given a full-season pickup.

On the reality tip, "Kitchen Nightmares" has been a decent player, and has already earned a second go-round; Friday night entry "Nashville" was DOA and talent competish "Next Great American Band" hasn't made any noise.

Midseason gameplan: "American Idol" will be huge, natch, filling three hours or more in some weeks. It's assumed that the megahit will stay in its regular Tuesday-Wednesday pattern, but there's always the possibility that the net may tweak things to allow "House" to air every week on Tuesday.

And then there's the return of "24," which is garnering headlines because of its move to Washington, D.C., and star Kiefer Sutherland's move to a county jail cell come hiatus time. Fox also has big-time sports events like the Super Bowl and college football's Bowl Championship Series.

To capitalize on all that action, the net has held back most of its new crop of skeins for January bows. Dramas include "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," which will air Mondays at 8; as well as "New Amsterdam" (Fridays) and "Canterbury's Law" (Thursdays).

Comedies set to go include "The Return of Jezebel James" (Wednesdays) and "Unhitched." Fox's plate is full enough that it has cut back orders on several shows, including "Amsterdam" and "Jezebel James."

Contingency plans: No net is better positioned than Fox because of the elastic "Idol." It would also be a shock if reality honcho Mike Darnell didn't have a midseason trick or two up his sleeve. One that's already in the works is gonzo gameshow "Lie Detector."

NBC

The season so far: Moving "The Office" to 9 p.m. has boosted the show's profile and turned it into a bona fide ratings hit. NBC's new shows, however, are struggling -- particularly "Journeyman" and "Life." Look for NBC to stick with buzz-friendly "Chuck" and the expensive "Bionic Woman," which the Peacock sees as worthy of getting more time to grow.

Overall, NBC has the least amount of demo decline among the Big Three nets, but it's also got no clear-cut winners to show and no other real growth stories, save "The Office."

Midseason strategy: Look for Peacock program chief Ben Silverman to try to razzle-dazzle 'em with an onslaught of flashy reality skeins ("Clash of the Choirs") and high-concept gameshows ("Amnesia"), as well as some specials and maybe a movie or two (a new "Knight Rider" is in the works).

Net's got some solid players on the bench, including "Medium" and "Law & Order" (which could replace fall failures at 10 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday). There's also "Sex and the City"-style drama "Lipstick Jungle."

It'll be interesting to see if NBC finally decides to try out a new show Thursday at 10, resting the weakened "ER" for a few weeks in what may very well be that show's last season.

Contingency plans: Net has already pulled the plug on "Heroes: Origins," citing the uncertain future of the WGA talks as a reason. Look for more cost-saving moves as NBC bulks up on reality -- and maybe even buys some already-produced episodes of British or Canadian shows.

The CW

The season so far: From a distance, things look pretty bad, with double-digit declines in many key demos. But dig deeper and CW has reason to hope. "Gossip Girl" is doing respectable ratings and is off the chart buzz-wise with the net's core aud of young femmes. "Reaper" is also doing well on those measures, as are the net's unscripted skeins.

"We did a good job of getting our priority shows off the ground," says CBS' Kahl, who also oversees the C-Dub's sked. He says "Gossip" and "Reaper" are on their way to becoming signature shows.

Midseason gameplan: Reality -- and lots of it. In addition to more "Top Model" and "Beauty and the Geek," net will launch newcomers "Crowned" and "Farmer Wants a Wife," along with another "Search for the Next Pussycat Doll." Also in the can: New episodes of vet drama "One Tree Hill."

Past history suggests CW will take off "Reaper" or "Gossip Girl" to make room for new fare, but Kahl hinted one or both could stay on the air in order to build new auds. Whatever it does, look for at least three weekly hours of reality (plus two hours of WWE on Friday). "Unlike last year, we won't be limping to the finish line," Kahl says.

Contingency plans: Except for a slowdown in originals, a CW strike sked wouldn't be too different from a regular sked. "One Tree" will return, while "Everybody Hates Chris" -- which has already wrapped production -- will stay in originals most of the season.

CBS' Maynard, who also oversees reality for CW, has a slew of possible reality replacements ready to greenlight if a strike drags on. In fact, some wonder if a strike wouldn't be good for CW, which could establish a strong identity as an unscripted network.

Scoobiedoo30

11-02-2007, 10:30 PM

I sure hope things work out

Tubehead

11-03-2007, 12:18 AM

I hope they don't get rid of jourany man. thats one of my favorite new shows.

Scoobiedoo30

11-03-2007, 12:23 AM

What other Show maybe in Touble if they go on Strick

Pavan

11-03-2007, 12:44 AM

The below statement was issued today on behalf of all the producers represented by the AMPTP regarding the WGA’s announcement of a strike commencing at 12:01 AM on Monday, November 5, 2007.

November 2, 2007 Statement from AMPTP President Nick Counter

The WGA's call for a strike is precipitous and irresponsible.

The writer is one of our most highly regarded assets and one of our most highly rewarded.

Working writers on average earn over $200,000 a year. All they have to do is earn $31,000 to qualify for a full year of coverage in the finest health care plan in the country. And they are among the few employees in the world who get an "additional annuity" in the form of residuals beyond their initial compensation.

Last year alone, WGA West writers made in excess of $56 million in additional compensation from DVD residuals. It makes absolutely no sense to increase the burden of this additional compensation. Their DVD proposal would more than double the cost to Producers.

As we said on the 31st, we worked very hard to come up with a package in response to their last proposal and the companies believe that movement on other issues is possible. But the magnitude of the DVD proposal alone is blocking us from making any further progress.

Instead of working toward solutions that would give the industry the flexibility it needs to meet today's business challenges, the WGA leadership continues to pursue numerous unreasonable proposals that would result in astronomical and unjustified increases in our costs, further restrict our ability to produce, promote and market TV series and films, and prohibit us from experimenting with programming and business models in New Media.

The WGA leadership continues to mischaracterize the current provisions for compensation in New Media. When a consumer pays to view a TV program or a feature film for a limited period of time, the writer gets a residual. When the consumer pays for a permanent download of a TV program or feature film, the writer gets a residual. As agreed to in past negotiations, the writer gets paid (plus gets pension and health contributions) for projects made specifically for New Media. The amount of the compensation is not a fixed amount, but is negotiated with the producer.

It is crucial that we have provisions that encourage--not inhibit—our ability to experiment, innovate, analyze and adapt to the transformative changes confronting us. We cannot ignore the challenges of today's economic realities, the shifts in audience taste and viewing habits and the unpredictability of the still-evolving technology.

Our goal continues to be to reach a fair and reasonable agreement that will keep the industry working.

As we receive additional information, we will keep you posted.

Scoobiedoo30

11-03-2007, 12:51 AM

so if there is A Writes Strick we will be watching lot's of TV Land

JulieSomoski

11-03-2007, 10:10 PM

I completely agree that things are out of hand. The writers are being nothing but selfish. But, if they won't come to agreements, we'll just have to manage. It just means for us less original TV, and more cable repeats and DVD's.

Brian Damage

11-03-2007, 11:04 PM

I totally disagree that the writer's are being selfish. They just want a piece of the pie that the studios have been hogging for years.

JulieSomoski

11-03-2007, 11:20 PM

I totally disagree that the writer's are being selfish. They just want a piece of the pie that the studios have been hogging for years.

They're already making more money than most people in the United States. $200,000 is what I would call heaven compared to what I and most others make. They're not only hurting the networks by putting new shows in hot water, but they're hurting the viewers for making us have to watch a schedule full of reality shows this season. If that isn't selfish, I don't know what is.

Brian Damage

11-03-2007, 11:23 PM

They're already making more money than most people in the United States. $200,000 is what I would call heaven compared to what I and most others make. They're not only hurting the networks by putting new shows in hot water, but they're hurting the viewers for making us have to watch a schedule full of reality shows this season. If that isn't selfish, I don't know what is.

That's not the point.

JulieSomoski

11-03-2007, 11:24 PM

That's not the point.

Then what is the point?

dawsongirl

11-04-2007, 01:09 AM

Well, if it will make us have to pay even more for DVDs, then they should stop whining. Not like many of the rest of us make $200K a year base pay.

If not, then just give them their damn money so we can see new TV. Nothing but reality sounds like hell on earth.

James

11-04-2007, 01:27 AM

clj2

11-04-2007, 08:14 AM

While I am disappointed that Jerry Springer and Maury will not be affected by this, plus there will be a ninth edition of Big Brother, I am glad to see the writers to on strike since I am not the least bit interested in the current slate of first-run programming offered by the networks. The last first-run comedy I watched was the series finale for Home Improvement in 1999. I'd like to see the likes of the CSIs, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and Two and a Half Men canceled early! Hopefully this strike will do as much damage to the entertainment industry as the 2004-05 lockout did to the NHL, if not more. (crosses fingers)

BRING IT ON!!!

LOL! I agree! Truthfully, I'd love to see more game shows and other programming like that in prime time in replacement of most of the shows airing - it'd probably be a step up. Smallville and Numb3rs are all I'm really in to this season and if they run out, that's just the way it is.

waichingliu81

11-04-2007, 09:06 AM

even though this is a sad state of affairs, the truth is that tv today is so god awful that frankly i am not the least bothered that they are striking. having said that, the fact that they are striking goes to show that most of those writers are driven by greed and care more about money than concerntrate on doing their jobs.

its all dramas and reality tv these days and less quality sitcoms and cartoons, and so they can strike all they want, because i'll be getting all my tv fix via the internet and sites such as you tube anyhow

comedyfreak

11-04-2007, 10:34 AM

Let 'em strike, I have to get caught up with the programs I've taped and haven't seen yet, LOL.

Brent88

11-04-2007, 04:25 PM

Hollywood Turns To 'ER' Producer/Writer To Stave Off Long Bitter Strike

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/urgent-wga-strike-update-coming-up/

Buffyboy323

11-04-2007, 04:54 PM

I have a feeling this Strike isn't going to go on for too long. The Networks will see that they cannot go on without their scripted shows. Everyone is going to get hurt by this.

Brent88

11-04-2007, 05:18 PM

Anyone familiar with the go-round of writers vs producers negotiations from 1999 to 2001 knows that Wells was considered something of a sellout by WGA standardss when he failed to make inroads on the important issue of DVD residuals with the moguls. So it was with immense surprise that I heard his entrance into this weekend's pre-strike fray came not only with the blessing of moguls Barry Meyer of Warner Bros, Peter Chernin of News Corp/Fox, and Bob Iger of Disney/ABC among other CEOs, but also with the blessing of the WGA leadership. I hear that Chair of the WGA Negotiating Committee John Bowman was specifically talking about Wells when he recently made reference to backchannel talks going on. "Bowman decided to use John Wells try to get a dialogue going. The guild has put its trust in Wells," a top WGA insider explained to me.
This, needless to say, is a huge development. At the same time, Wells, one of the biggest names in Warner Bros' TV stable, was already quietly talking to Barry Meyer since the two have a long and close and profitable relationship.
So here's the chronology, best as I can put it together: On Friday, Desperate Housewives' Marc Cherry, who's also part of the WGA negotiating committee, talked with his studio boss, Bob Iger, to see if the moguls would meet with the WGA leadership this weekend. That proved a non-starter, and things really looked bleak.
Wwith the strike about to start Monday. Cherry called Bowman, and Bowman decided to use John Wells "to try to smooth things". Then Wells called Barry Meyer offering to act as, as someone put it to me, "consigliare" (because there are always Godfather references in everything Hollywood does). And Barry Meyer called Bob Iger and Peter Chernin. And then Les Moonves and Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal and Harry Sloan were brought up to speed. And then the moguls got on the telephones not just to one another but also to the top WGA screenwriters and TV showrunners/hyphenates with whom they've all had the longest relationships to schmooze them about the need for backchannel talks.

Scoobiedoo30

11-04-2007, 05:22 PM

so they have not decided yet

Brent88

11-04-2007, 06:10 PM

so they have not decided yet

As of now the strike will begin tomorrow. But the fact they are talking means it could be a short one with little impact. Just don't know. It's a lot better than not talking though.

Brent88

11-04-2007, 07:20 PM

SUNDAY AT 3 PM: "Things are looking up a little bit at today's meeting," a good source just told me about the federal mediator-ordered confab Sunday.

Buffyboy323

11-04-2007, 07:36 PM

Hollywood Turns To 'ER' Producer/Writer To Stave Off Long Bitter Strike

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/urgent-wga-strike-update-coming-up/
:confused:

So he's trying to make some kind of deal with the writers?

Brent88

11-04-2007, 07:38 PM

:confused:

So he's trying to make some kind of deal with the writers?

Not sure but whatever it is it's working at least to a point. I'm not totally clear on his past history, but it seems it wasn't good for the WGA before.

Brent88

11-05-2007, 12:08 AM

Well NEVERMIND. UGH! Goodbye scripted TV.

SUNDAY AT 10:02 PM: ALL DAY TALKS HAVE COLLAPSED! NEGOTIATIONS ENDED WHEN WGA EAST REFUSED TO STOP STRIKE!

An AMPTP insider just told me: "The WGA went out on strike at 12:01 AM Eastern. At about 9:30 PM Pacific they informed us they were on strike and left the hotel."

Here's the just released statement from the motion picture and television producers' alliance president Nick Counter: "Notwithstanding the fact that negotiations were ongoing, the WGA decided to start their strike in New York. When we asked if they would "stop the clock" for the purpose of delaying the strike to allow negotiations to continue, they refused. We made an attempt at meeting them in a number of their key areas including Internet streaming and jurisdiction in New Media. Ultimately, the guild was unwilling to compromise on most of their major demands. It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action."

Mr. Television

11-05-2007, 11:40 AM

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hnazApHsRHlQCZ-Bza49j9PBT72w

Hollywood writers' strike begins as talks collapse

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Hollywood writers went on strike Monday after last-minute talks aimed at ending a standoff between studios and wordsmiths collapsed, with the union demanding a share of cash brought in from DVDs and online distribution of shows.

"The strike is on," Writers Guild of America spokeswoman Sherry Goldman told AFP.

The strike deadline was a minute into Monday in each US time zone, meaning writers in New York City were the first to walk off their jobs, according to Goldman.

An 11th-hour negotiating session was held with the help of a federal mediator Sunday, but it broke down without achieving any results.

Members of the 12,000-strong union plan to begin picketing Monday morning at major studios in the Los Angeles area and outside NBC studio at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

The first casualties of the walk-out are likely to be talk shows, soap operas, and comedy programs that rely on fresh scripts.

Major motion picture studios and television programs typically have stockpiles of scripts that can insulate them from feeling the effects of the strike for a year or longer.

Writers want a greater share of residual profits from television series sold on DVDs and money made from programs shown on the Internet, cellular phones, and other new media outlets.

Producers acknowledge that online viewing is increasing and promise to study the issue, but argue that it is too early to say how profitable it will be.

Writers are determined not to repeat a mistake made decades earlier, when they underestimated how lucrative home video sales would become and settled for a contract that gives them just three cents of each DVD film sale.

"The biggest sticking point is new media, new technology," Goldman said after the strike began. "Our mantra is, 'if they get paid, we get paid'."

Writers get 1.2 percent of revenues from shows streamed online for one-time viewing but get nothing from content downloaded to own from websites such as iTunes.

"This technology has boomed," Goldman said. "We need to get paid for new media," she said, rattling off new-fangled ways movies now are viewed, including "webisodes," "mobisodes" and "snippets."

"More of this is being shown on computer screens and we get nothing," she said.

For example, if an entire blockbuster film supported by ads is shown free of charge on the Internet, writers get no money because studios label the display "promotional."

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has refused to discuss anything related to new media in negotiations during the past three months, Goldman said.

"There is no common ground," the union spokeswoman said.

Producers reject the guild's demands as unworkable and too expensive, setting the stage for the first major strike by Hollywood writers in nearly 20 years.

The strike call came after talks between the guild and the AMPTP broke down hours before an existing agreement expired on October 31.

"We are very disappointed with ... the action they took," Nicholas Counter, president of the AMPTP, said of the unionists.

Counter contends that the union's public argument is laden with "falsehoods, misstatements and inaccuracies" and promised specifics at a later date.

Industry analysts predict a lengthy shutdown lasting several months, with one estimate of potential losses set at more than one billion dollars.

A WGA strike in 1988 lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry an estimated 500 million dollars.

Mr. Television

11-05-2007, 02:52 PM

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-striketvgrid-html,0,7606966.htmlstory?coll=la-home-center

The writers' strike will take an immediate toll on television viewers' favorite programs, dealing a setback to shows that are written day-to-day -- such as Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" -- as well as scripted programming already underway or about to go into production.

Soap operas would theoretically start disappearing from the airwaves soon, since most have episodes to last them only until the end of the year. But during the 1988 strike, producers wrote in place of striking writers, and soaps stayed on the air.

Prime-time scripted series have episodes through mid-January or early February, depending on how many reruns they space out in the next few months. Unscripted shows -- such as "Survivor," "The Amazing Race," and, when it returns in January, "American Idol" -- would continue uninterrupted.

Here's a look at where many shows stand:

Late Night
"Colbert Report,"
"The Daily Show" and
"Saturday Night Live" Will go into repeats immediately.
"The Tonight Show" and
"The Conan O'Brien Show" Will go into repeats immediately.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live"
Staffed with WGA writers, so it would probably go to repeats. But Kimmel could also decide to wing it and do the show himself.
"Nightline"
Will remain live and in originals.
ABC
"Lost"
Expected to have eight out of 16 episodes ready.
Midseason, none have aired yet
"Cavemen"
Expected to have 12 out of 13 episodes completed; has not received an order for a full season.
"Men in Trees"
Has five episodes left over from last season, 10 new episodes shot, four more scripts to shoot; adds up to 19 out of 27 for the season.
"Cashmere Mafia"
Will have seven episodes out of an order of 13.
"The View"
Will continue uninterrupted, according to a spokesman.
"Dirty Sexy Money"
Expected have between 11 and 13 episodes completed.
"Brothers & Sisters"
Expected to have either 11 or 12 episodes completed.
"Eli Stone"
Will have 13 of 13 ordered. Midseason premiere date is undetermined.
CBS
"Moonlight"
Expected to have 11 out of 12 episodes completed; has not received an order for a full season.
"Cane"
Expected to complete all 13 episodes; has not yet received an order for a full season.
"Jericho"
Will have seven of seven episodes.
NBC
"30 Rock"
Has nine out of 22 episodes completed, with several days of shooting for the 10th episode scheduled for this week.
"Friday Night Lights"
Expected to complete 15 of 22 episodes.
"Scrubs"
Expected to complete 12 of 18 episodes.
"Journeyman"
Expected to complete 13 of 13 episodes; has not yet received an order for a full season.
CW
"Everybody Hates Chris" Expected to complete 22 of 22 episodes.
"Gossip Girl" Expected to complete 13 of 22 episodes.
"Supernatural" Has 10-12 episodes completed;
Those shows also have roughly five scripts that are ready to shoot.
"America's Next Top Model,"
"Beauty and the Geek"
and new shows such as "Crowned" (the mother-daughter beauty contest)
Three of a number of reality shows that have already been ordered up, meaning they are covered for the rest of the season
Fox
"24" Will have eight or nine out of 24 episodes completed. Midseason, none have aired yet.
USA
"In Plain Sight"
New show, episodes are nearly wrapped
"Psych" and "Monk"
Enough scripts in hand to guarantee a full second half of each season
"Law and Order: Criminal Intent"
Enough for first half of the season (10); the second half (12) will be affected (meaning not enough scripts to guarantee production start as scheduled.)
"Burn Notice"
Scheduled to start production of Season 2 in January
"Starter Wife"
Scheduled to start production in March
Sci-Fi
"Stargate Atlantis"
Expected to go on as scheduled.
"Battlestar Galactica"
Has 10 hours of episodes, plus a two hour movie to air this Fall.
"Eureka"
Will be affected.
FX
"Thirty Days"
Completed, not expected to be affected.
"Nip/Tuck"
5th season, the 22 episodes were planned for two cycles: 14 to run from now to February and eight next year. All 14 in the first cycle have been written. So, only the second cycle could be affected.
"The Shield"
The final season is written, no date set for airing.
"Dirt" and "The Riches"
Production is underway, and they could be affected.
"Rescue Me"
5th season, just announced, would be affected since production is expected to start in early '08.
"Damages"
No word yet on whether it would be picked up
HBO
"Entourage" and
"Big Love" Are currently in the writing stages and were scheduled to air in the summer of 2008.
"True Blood" and
"12 Miles of Bad Road" Have begun production.

"The Wire" Completed and will air as scheduled.

"In Treatment" New series will air as scheduled.

JulieSomoski

11-05-2007, 05:33 PM

JulieSomoski

11-05-2007, 05:44 PM

They didn't mention shows like Back to You and Big bang Theory. I wonder how badly they'll be affected. From the way it looks, most shows have either half or 3/4 of their seasons written or taped, so it shouldn't start hurting really badly until around February. If they strike lasts that long, I'd expect to see nothing but reality shows and primetime gameshows.

friendsfan77

11-05-2007, 06:00 PM

I wonder what's going to happen with Ugly Betty. I hope this gets resolved soon; heaven knows I'm tired of reality shows.

chris31989

11-05-2007, 06:07 PM

What irritates me is that on my local news, they had network execs of CBS NBC etc saying that they have reality shows to back them up. It's sad that television is no longer geared towards scripted programming at least 90%. If I want reality, I can walk out my door.

11-05-2007, 06:11 PM

^I'll watch my old vcr tapes & dvd's before I'll watch any "Reality Replacement Shows".

Brent88

11-05-2007, 06:30 PM

I wonder what's going to happen with Ugly Betty. I hope this gets resolved soon; heaven knows I'm tired of reality shows.

Same boat as most other ABC shows. I heard Patrick Dempsey say today on the radio that Grey's has 11 episodes(including scripts done)! Episode 10 is slated to air November 29th. :(

Pavan

11-05-2007, 07:26 PM

Scoobiedoo30

11-05-2007, 07:31 PM

I just cant belive that they would Strick during The November Ratings Sweeps Period

Brent88

11-05-2007, 07:51 PM

Multi-camera sitcoms will be hit hard because writers are needed each week for reworks. So whatever has been taped prior to today will only be available, doesn't matter if they have scripts already done, like the dramas.

Wonderful!

Get ready for a lot more reality shows... this is the beginning of the end of scripted TV. Idol will be bigger than ever in the year it was going to slip from tougher competition. :rolleyes:

I'm just glad I'm not a late night fan. Repeats TONIGHT!

Scoobiedoo30

11-05-2007, 07:56 PM

I am going to be watching TV Land

Mr. Television

11-05-2007, 08:10 PM

I was going to watch last weeks Prison Break that I taped but I'll just hold off on it. Their's no hurry now.

This strike isn't going to help TV writers in the long run if the networks think they can be replaced by reality shows.

Tubehead

11-05-2007, 08:13 PM

I hope they don't get ride of jourany man or heros. their my two new favorite shows.

Brent88

11-05-2007, 08:21 PM

I hope they don't get ride of jourany man or heros. their my two new favorite shows.

Journeyman should be grateful for the strike actually. It would have been cancelled by now otherwise. Instead NBC will be running all 13 episodes most likely. Originals is better than repeats.

Probably will wrapup in January at the latest though. Heroes finale(barring a miraculous quick strike) is on December 3rd.

ohno:

Mr. Television

11-05-2007, 08:25 PM

Mr. Television

11-05-2007, 08:36 PM

http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainmentheadlines/ci_7377453

Shows affected by the Hollywood writers strike
Associated Press
Article Launched: 11/05/2007 02:59:19 PM PST

Related Stories
Nov 5:

Networks said the following shows will immediately go into reruns because of the writers strike:
• NBC: "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "Last Call with Carson Daly."

• CBS: "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson."

• Comedy Central: "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "Colbert Report."

Networks and publicists cited these other impacts:

• "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" will air new episodes on Monday and Tuesday that were filmed before the strike.

• ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" will air as usual Monday and Tuesday.

• CBS soap operas such as "The Young and the Restless," "Guiding Light" and "As the World Turns" will continue uninterrupted for several months with completed scripts.

• ABC's "The View" talk show will continue uninterrupted because of contingency plans made before the strike.

• ABC soaps, including "All My Children," "One Life to Live" and "General Hospital," have been written into the new year and will not be interrupted.

• "The Oprah Winfrey Show" doesn't employ union writers and will continue uninterrupted.

Brent88

11-05-2007, 08:42 PM

If the strike drags on it's going to be interesting to see how the networks set their fall schedule. They usually have to go through a bunch of pilots around February and March and how will they decide which new shows that premiered this year should be renewed?

If pilot season is wiped out(which would be in February/March) you'll probably just see most of the new shows come back, even if they are bad performers, because there won't be any new scripted shows to replace them with, plus whatever reality/game shows hit out of this disaster.

Chelsea

11-05-2007, 09:05 PM

Pushing back the strike just defeats the purpose of striking in the first place.

JulieSomoski

11-05-2007, 09:20 PM

I actually felt this season mutlicamera sitcoms would actually start to make a comeback. After this strike, I bet we can pretty much kiss them goodbye. This probably means FOX will cut their 24 episode order down a lot if the strike continues. Does anyone know how many episodes taped the CBS sitcoms have?

Brent88

11-05-2007, 09:50 PM

Is this a strike that could have been prevented?

Both producers and writers are angry over the way talks collapsed Sunday night, with both sides creating a Rashomon atmosphere of disagreeing over who did what -- and when. But pretty much everyone agrees that action must be taken in the next 48 hours if Hollywood is going to avoid a long and costly strike.

The question: Who will take the initiative to get talks to resume? Producers believe it's up to the writers to make the first move; the WGA says it's ready, willing and able to resume talks at any point.

"I think both sides want to continue negotiations," WGA West exec director David Young said Monday. "We are not getting a divorce."

But with a full-fledged strike started and lingering acrimony between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, prospects for resuming talks are dimming. Many already believe that the Directors Guild of America will end up riding in like the cavalry to make a deal that could lead to labor peace -- even though WGA leaders have already asserted that they won't look favorably at such an outcome.

The confusing outlook could get especially ugly by Thursday, when the Writers Guild of America has given as the deadline for its Script Validation Program, whereby writers must turn in drafts of their current works. Studios and networks have demanded the guild cease and desist from enforcing that program.

Sources close to talks said that five key sticking points were on the table at the start of talks Sunday, and those had been whittled down to just two by the dinner break. Many in both camps feel that they could have made serious progress if the talks continued.

But AMPTP president Nick Counter said the talks collapsed when the companies were in caucus ater 9 p.m. PST and discovered that the WGA East website was declaring the strike had started. The AMPTP reps then asked WGA East topper Mona Mangan if that was indeed the case, and she said it was.

"We asked the WGA if they'd be willing to put a pin in the strike so we could continue negotiations and Mona and David Young said 'no'," Counter said. "We were having dialogue and making some progress and then we hit a brick wall."

But Young said that he had told the AMPTP at noon Sunday that the WGA was willing to talk all night but that it would not call off the strike. He also admitted that there had been some progress during the session.

"If it were Oct. 10, I would be hopeful and happy," he added. "But here we are at 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 4 and they still have not made an economic proposal. We had gotten some movement but nothing on their economic package."

WGA negotiators were infuriated by what they perceived as a lack of movement by the AMPTP once they had taken their proposal to double DVD residuals off the table. Negotiating committee member and showrunner Shawn Ryan ("The Shield," "The Unit") sent out an angry email afterward after spending nearly 12 hours in the Sunday session.

"I watched our side desperately try to make a deal," Ryan said. "We gave up our request to increase revenue on DVDs, something that was very painful to give up, but something we felt we had to in order to get a deal made in new media, which is our future. I watched as the company's representatives treated us horrendously, disrespectfully, and then walked out on us at 9:30 and then lied to the trades, claiming we had broken off negotiations."

The key sticking points remain residuals for new media, payment for work for the Internet and use of streaming video. Counter painted a grim future on Monday.

"The outlook for future WGA negotiations is pretty bleak," he admitted. "The only guideline we have is that the 1988 strike by the WGA lasted five months."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117975429.html?categoryid=2821&cs=1

Chelsea

11-05-2007, 10:12 PM

I'll have Amazing Race on DVR as I have for some time, and I'll at least give the replacement game shows a chance. But I'd rather have scripted programming, definitely.

I've known people who watch Grey's Anatomy who, when an episode was preempted due to severe weather, actually threatened station meteorologists. This won't end well, at all, if this strike goes into 2008.

sweetdiggity

11-05-2007, 11:49 PM

I'm already missing Jay Leno. :(

JulieSomoski

11-06-2007, 12:09 AM

I'm already missing Jay Leno. :(

I know . . . I'm not looking forward to a repeat in 25 minutes. I might have to actually watch Fresh Prince on NAN :eek:

dawsongirl

11-06-2007, 12:26 AM

Okay, so writers who are not part of the union (like producers and whoever else) can write and are not attacked at scabs? If that's the case, producers could put together a couple scripts to at least keep originals on the air.

Scoobiedoo30

11-06-2007, 12:32 AM

Let just hope this strike is not that long

noveelatbk

11-06-2007, 12:39 AM

I just cant belive that they would Strick during The November Ratings Sweeps Period

You'll only notice on Late Night shows.

Mr. Television

11-06-2007, 12:41 AM

You'll only notice on Late Night shows.
Yea I don't think we'll really notice anything big until February.

ky24943

11-06-2007, 01:50 AM

Scrubs may not get a proper finale
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i00627c6566fe8f5f5f5b1741439c6b5e

snl 70s show fan

11-06-2007, 01:51 AM

I'm already missing Jay Leno. :(i feel the same way about saturday night live im sure not looking forward to weeks and weeks of reruns i get enough of those in the summer

noveelatbk

11-06-2007, 05:33 AM

Will they bring in scab writers?

JulieSomoski

11-06-2007, 11:41 AM

Will they bring in scab writers?

I'm kind of hoping they're not, because it means we might have to suffer, as the episodequality and writing won't the best. Nothing against the non-union writers.

Brent88

11-06-2007, 08:14 PM

"Breaking Strike Talks News"

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/dhd-advisory-breaking-strike-story/

Can't possibly be bad news.

Chelsea

11-06-2007, 09:17 PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Production of three sitcoms filmed before live audiences has been halted because of the Hollywood writers strike, networks said Tuesday. Chris Alexander, a spokesman for 20th Century Fox Television, said the show ''Back to You'' starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton will not return from a planned hiatus on Wednesday.

The sitcoms '''Til Death,'' which airs on Fox, and ''Rules of Engagement,'' on CBS, will also stop production immediately because of the strike, according to a Sony Pictures Television executive not authorized to be quoted who requested anonymity.

The shows are typically written the same week they are filmed, with jokes being sharpened by writers even on the day of production.

Buffyboy323

11-06-2007, 09:32 PM

Scrubs may not get a proper finale
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i00627c6566fe8f5f5f5b1741439c6b5e
That would suck! It needs to have a proper goodbye, and not leave all the fans on a cliffhanger or unsatisfying ending.

And if this is ER's final year, so help me it better get a wonderful send-off!

Were/are any other shows expecting this to be their last season?

Brent88

11-06-2007, 10:55 PM

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/deals-lies-backchannelling-why-this-is-a-bigger-mess-now-than-ever-before/

Ouch! This thread will be going well into next year I guess.

Superbowl

11-06-2007, 11:39 PM

Brent88

11-07-2007, 01:16 AM

This is the most angry strike I ever saw. It seems like both sides just want to kill each other. It is so bad that they can't even meet and negotiate. Well, if these two don't get together and start being reasonable not only are they going to cost the industry over a billion dollars, but they are going to cause irreparable damage to TV forever.

Lots of people, especially younger viewers, may not return after a long strike. They will find other entertainment sources such as the internet, dvds, and computer games. This industry better watch it, because TV as we know it may never be the same. I just wish cooler heads would prevail, and just get a deal that is fair for both sides.

Yep, and if this strike does indeed last into next year, when TV does come back, you're going to see a lot less scripted and a lot more unscripted. :(

I have never seen anything like this, I was born during the 88 strike so I don't remember it, but it couldn't have been this bad and it still lasted 5 months.

In June the actors and directors contracts are up and if the WGA is still on strike then(same issues, DVD residuals), I bet they are right there with them, then Hollywood is really screwed. You think it's bad now? This is going to destroy the economy out there. The little person will be hurt, not the people responsible for this mess.

dawsongirl

11-07-2007, 01:39 AM

Lord....let's all act like 5 year olds. :rolleyes: Wanting blood gets nothing accomplished. What about those poor behind the scenes people who need to keep working for the paycheck? They can't all be stinking rich.

treky

11-07-2007, 03:37 AM

Brent88

11-07-2007, 03:51 AM

Hopes for a quick resolution of the writers strike are fading fast.Back-channel efforts have resumed to avert what's now looking like a long and painful work stoppage. But those moves aren't gaining much traction amid continued hardline public stances by both the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

Worries have risen that without reviving the WGA talks, the scribes' work stoppage could easily bleed into the middle of next year.

The DGA's expected to launch talks within the next few weeks while SAG's negotiations would probably start in the late winter or early spring. Both the DGA and SAG contracts expire June 30.

WGA negotiations collapsed Sunday night, dashing a brief burst of optimism over the weekend that both sides had softened their stances and narrowed their proposals. And since the talks crashed and burned, both sides have ditched diplomacy.

AMPTP topper Nick Counter has insisted that the companies aren't interested in new talks as long as the WGA's on strike. And WGA West president Patric Verrone has declared in an email to members that the guild is no longer committed to taking its DVD residuals proposal off the table -- even though it did so Sunday to address the AMPTP's assertion that the DVD proposal was a roadblock to a deal.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117975495.html?categoryid=2821&cs=1

thebloodyscot

11-07-2007, 03:56 AM

:sleep2:
Oh well, I don't care because I really don't watch new shows anymore

Mr. Television

11-07-2007, 09:32 AM

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-lifestyle-strike-1106,0,2975912.story

Production stopping on at least 7 prime-time shows due to strike

LOS ANGELES - Production of the hit show "Desperate Housewives" and at least six sitcoms filmed before live audiences will be halted as a result of the writers strike -- developments that raised the stakes Tuesday in the walkout targeting movie studios and TV networks.

Producer Alexandra Cunningham said "Desperate Housewives" will stop production on Wednesday after running out of scripts. Shows that have already been completed won't last until Christmas, she said.

"It's unfortunate. We want to get back to work," Cunningham said.

Sitcoms that will stop the cameras include "Back to You," starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, which will not return from a planned hiatus, said Chris Alexander, a spokesman for 20th Century Fox Television.

Star Julia Louis-Dreyfus said production also stopped on her CBS show, "The New Adventures of Old Christine."

In addition, "Til Death," which airs on Fox, and "Rules of Engagement," ''Two and a Half Men" and "The Big Bang Theory," all on CBS, will also end filming, according to people familiar with production of the shows who were not authorized to be quoted and requested anonymity.

Network officials referred calls to the individual companies producing each show.

It was not immediately clear how many of the programs might already be finished.

The sitcoms are typically written the same week they are filmed, with jokes being sharpened by writers even on the day of production.

The disclosures came during the second day of the strike by the Writers Guild of America against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Pickets returned to studios in Los Angeles and New York.

In Toluca Lake, near Warner Bros. studio, writers converged on a house serving as a location shoot for "Desperate Housewives."

"We write the story-a, Eva Longoria," about 30 strikers chanted, referring to a star of the hit ABC show.

"It is a very serious business," said Larry Wilmore, a writer on "The Daily Show," explaining that protesters were marching "so we can get back to being funny."

Shooting continued Tuesday inside the house despite the protests, said Chandler Hayes, a spokesman for ABC.

Marc Cherry, executive producer and creator of the show, said the writers had his blessing to picket as long as they were respectful to the actors.

Actress Louis-Dreyfus joined the protesters.

"I'm really here because I'm a union member," she said, explaining she belongs to the Screen Actors Guild and her husband is a member of the writers guild.

"If we prevent them from working today, that's a small victory," she said.

Longoria left the house and handed out pizza to strikers.

"We are done, and we'll be on the lines supporting you," she told them.

"I have a whole crew that will have a terrible holiday season because there's no resolution," she said. "I care about people losing their homes, I care about my hair and makeup artists who can't make ends meet."

In New York, strikers picketed outside Silver Cup Studios in Queens, the site of shooting for "30 Rock" and "Gossip Girl."

The strike began Monday after last-minute negotiations failed to produce a deal on how much writers are paid when shows are offered on the Internet.

No new negotiations were scheduled.

Nick Counter, chief negotiator for the producers union, has said he expected a long standoff. Writers said the next move was up to the studios.

The walkout immediately sent late-night comedy shows into reruns.

It was not expected to have an immediate impact on production of movies or most prime-time TV programs. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts, and many TV shows have scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year.

While scripted shows suffer from the strike, reality shows could flourish because they don't use union writers, despite an aggressive attempt by the writers guild to organize the staffers on the programs.

Viewers could also check out more entertainment on the Internet, ranging from user-generated fare on YouTube to professionally produced shows such as "Quarterlife."

Writers have not gone on strike since 1988, when the walkout lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry more than $500 million.

JulieSomoski

11-07-2007, 04:53 PM

The way I see it, this could really be the end of any good scripted sitcoms. They are obvisouly gonna be hit the hardest, and wil just be forgotten about as long as the strike continues going the way it is. We'll probably eventually see reality shows take their spots on the schedule, and that's it. I wonder what shows will be next to stop production. I can really see Pushing Daisies and Grey's Anatomy stopping next.

I feel sorry for the stars of Back to You. They were just starting to get off their feet, and now they've pretty much lost their job for the rest of this season.

EmoJoe

11-07-2007, 05:02 PM

this is really unfortunate, because i think in the past two or three years, scripted TV has really started to rise again after a bit of a slump in the earlier part of this decade. i think there's been a lot of great new shows in the past 2-3 years that have showed a lot of promise for the future of network TV, like 30 Rock, Heroes, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Big Bang Theroy, The Office...ect. i dont even like all of those shows but the fact that so many other people seem to and that people are starting to crawl away from reality TV is a step up. hopefully this strike doesnt kill the progress thats been made in the past 2-3 years.

JulieSomoski

11-07-2007, 05:06 PM

this is really unfortunate, because i think in the past year or two, scripted TV has really started to rise again after a bit of a slump in the earlier part of this decade. i think there's been a lot of great new shows in the past 2-3 years that have showed a lot of promise for the future of network TV, like 30 Rock, Heroes, Lost, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Big Bang Theroy, The Office...ect. i dont even like all of those shows but the fact that so many other people seem to and that people are starting to crawl away from reality TV is a step up. hopefully this strike doesnt kill the progress thats been made in the past 2-3 years.

You're right. TV audiences have been rising again in the past few years, but the strike will probably be the thing to kill it. That's why I'm afraid with the state sitcoms are in right now, this could really be the end of them. Sitcoms are gonna be the first shows to go, so let's just hope people don't get used to watching reality programming for the next couple of months!

Brent88

11-07-2007, 06:24 PM

You're right. TV audiences have been rising again in the past few years, but the strike will probably be the thing to kill it. That's why I'm afraid with the state sitcoms are in right now, this could really be the end of them. Sitcoms are gonna be the first shows to go, so let's just hope people don't get used to watching reality programming for the next couple of months!

Agreed, I'm just so disappointed in the timing of this. I love so many new shows this season(and a bunch of others from 2004/2005/2006), and now so many are going to be destroyed. :(

But beyond that, it's the horrible timing of the year too for those out in Hollywood with the holiday season upon us.

Mr. Television

11-07-2007, 06:25 PM

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2007/11/dsm.html

Strike Watch, Day 3: What will happen to 'Dirty Sexy Money' and other new shows?
Could new shows such as ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money" become casualties of the writers' strike, which began Monday?

Last Friday, three days before the Writers Guild of America went on strike, the ABC drama's creator and executive producer, Craig Wright, sounded pessimistic about the show’s chances in the face of the scribes’ walkout (there's more on the strike here).

“I believe the show might end with Episode 10 — that might be the last one aired,” said Wright. He added that he supports the WGA strike, which largely revolves around writers compensation for Internet use of TV shows and films.

“Dirty Sexy Money” is taking a break Wednesday — the three-hour Country Music Awards show airs at 7 p.m. on WLS-Ch. 7 — but it will return with its seventh episode at 9 p.m. Nov. 14.

If the strike drags on for months and ABC ends up canceling the show, there’s a chance that we could be done with “Dirty Sexy Money” — and many other new programs on the broadcast networks — by the end of the month.

That would be a shame in the case of “Dirty Sexy Money” (but not so much for the majority of other new shows for fall). Though it has wobbled a bit in its quest to be both a voyeuristic soap and a serious drama about the personal costs of extreme privilege, “Dirty Sexy Money” has never been less than interesting.

Though I’ll miss the finely nuanced portrayal Peter Krause was giving as conflicted attorney Nick George, I might miss the luscious interiors that George’s employers, the mega-rich Darling family, occupied even more. If ever a show was a feast for the eyes, it was this handsome drama.

But before the strike, ABC did not pick up “Dirty Sexy Money” for a full season. A few new series (“Pushing Daisies,” “Gossip Girl,” “Samantha Who?” “Back to You” and “The Big Bang Theory”) did get full-season episode orders. Of course, no new episodes of any scripted TV shows are being written now, because of the strike. But those with full-season orders may be more likely to survive if the strike is short-lived.

On the other hand, the strike might give the networks the chance at a do-over. Executives might decide, especially if the strike continues into the new year, to ditch the majority of new shows that they rolled out mere weeks ago.

No, I don’t understand how spending tens of millions of dollars on new shows and expensive P.R. campaigns, then killing the majority of those same programs two months later makes any sense either. Trying to figure out network logic is one sure-fired way to give yourself a migraine, so don’t bother trying.

In this otherwise pallid season for new network shows, “Aliens in America,” “Gossip Girl” (which I’m slowly warming to) and “Dirty Sexy Money” have been the only shows I’ve developed any affection for. “Life” and “Reaper” show some wisps of potential, but they aren’t nearly required viewing yet.

Still, most new shows require some time to hit their stride, and “Dirty Sexy Money” was on its way to doing just that. Its ambitions may have outstripped its execution at times, but those very ambitions — to mix comedy, satire and even a murder mystery with soapy standbys such as illegitimate children and unrequited love — set it apart from much of the new crop of programs.

Even if the show’s young tabloid-friendly Darling twins could be annoying at times, other characters had intriguing potential, especially billionaire Simon Elder (Blair Underwood).

And one of my favorite romances of the new season was between political candidate Patrick Darling (William Baldwin) and his transgender lover, Carmelita (Candis Cayne) – a love affair that was handled with dignity and respect. Carmelita was a real person, not just a punchline or a plot device, and she proved to be a worthy adversary for Tripp Darling (Donald Sutherland), who desperately wanted her out of his son’s life.

Back in July, before the show premiered, Wright talked in an interview about how much of protagonist Nick George’s story was derived from his own experiences.

Wright grew up poor, left home at 14 and ended up writing plays. In pursuit of a more stable income, he attended divinity school in Minnesota and became a minister for a short time. (It’s this aspect of his background that led him to create the “Dirty Sexy Money” character of Rev. Brian Darling.) Then one of his plays got Wright a job on the writing staff of “Six Feet Under”; he’s since worked on “Lost” and “Brothers and Sisters.”

Wright said over the summer that he told his “Dirty Sexy Money” writers, “‘If you’re going to write for this show, you need to commit to examining the questions you face as a rising interloper in a world of radical privilege. You need to write your journey.’”

“The average Hollywood writer’s journey is Nick’s journey,” Wright added. “[He’s] someone who starts out moral and gets slowly deeper into a world” where his formerly trusty moral compass becomes unreliable.

“A poet named Kenneth Patchen said, ‘The one who comes to question himself has cared for mankind,’” Wright said. “I definitely think this show is part of how I question myself.”

Last Friday, Wright said he had envisioned a midseason point at which George would go to bed in a lavish new apartment, bought with a small sliver of the Darlings’ seemingly limitless fortune. Despite the beauty of his surroundings, the lawyer would find rest hard to come by.

“He can’t sleep and his wife says, ‘Is something wrong?’” Wright said George had promised himself he would work for the Darlings only for as long as it took him to investigate the death of his father, the family’s previous lawyer. “He just says, ‘I just realized — I’d miss this.’”

Wright, who said one of his only indulgences is wine, said he can relate to that idea.

“When the bubble bursts and I fall back down into the Bowery, I’m going to miss what it’s like to taste a 20-year old Bordeaux,” the writer said.

Wright added that he’ll also miss working with the cast, which includes Jill Clayburgh and Sutherland as the Darling family matriarch and patriarch.

“The best part is working with the actors on the set in the moment to find something new,” Wright said.

“Dirty Sexy Money” is “humorous, romantic, there’s intrigue – you never know what kind of beat is coming next,” Wright added. “The really poisonous thing about a lot of network TV is that you know what it is from the moment it starts and it never stops being that.”

His drama is “on one most populist networks, but it’s intelligent and it’s cheeky and it’s unapologetically complicated and that makes me happy,” Wright said.

Should that last sentence from Wright have been in the past tense? We’ll find out in the next few weeks.

Mr. Television

11-07-2007, 06:31 PM

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20071107_Ellen_Gray___How_to_survive_the_TV_writers_strike.html

Ellen Gray | How to survive the TV writers strike
Philadelphia Daily News

IT'S DAY 3 of the Writers Guild of America strike, and unless you really do get all your news from Jon Stewart - whose "Daily Show" on Comedy Central was among the first to take a hit - it's too soon to panic.
But not too soon for viewers to make plans for weathering what could be a long strike, as writers and studio chiefs wrangle over issues that include who does (and doesn't) get paid when NBC's "The Office" shows up on your computer instead of your TV.

In 1988, when the writers last went out, the biggest winner of the 22-week strike was the cable industry, the biggest loser broadcast television, since it's estimated that 10 percent of the network viewers lost during that strike were lost forever.

Nearly two decades later, we still have cable - plus many more options, including the online viewing that, ironically, is likely to only increase as both sides argue about it.

Look, I'm not going to tell you to read a book instead. You should be reading already, even great TV being no excuse for not nourishing parts of your brain that electronic media can't.

And sure, we could all be better-informed, even if that means recording an early-evening newscast for playback in prime time.

But if the thought of not getting a fresh fix every week of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" or Fox's "House" has you looking ahead to the new year with horror, here's what you can do now:

_ Face "reality."

Though networks don't like to elaborate on their strike plans, it's believed that the pipeline's clogged with shows that don't employ union writers (though some, like the CW's "America's Next Top Model," do have employees whose work, the WGA argues, essentially involves writing scripts). And if you haven't watched Fox's "American Idol" before, this might be the season to give it a look.

Pros: Not all "reality" programming is bad, just as not everything scripted is good. When CBS replaced "Viva Laughlin" with "The Amazing Race," it could be argued that the fall season improved dramatically.

Cons: Few shows are "Idol" or "Race," and in the past, when networks have loaded up on unscripted shows, the overall quality's been dismal. (Remember Lorenzo Lamas and his infernal laser pointer in ABC's "Are You Hot?") Plus, if viewers embrace "reality" in the short term, they can expect to see far more of it in the long term - and probably a longer strike, too.

_ Order tickets to Aaron Sorkin's "The Farnsworth Invention," which opens on Broadway Nov. 14.

Pros: Fans of "The West Wing" who've been missing Sorkin's distinctive voice since the cancellation of NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" might gain some perspective on the long history of television through his new play, which reportedly looks at the fight between inventor Philo Farnsworth (Jimmi Simpson) and RCA's David Sarnoff (Hank Azaria) over the patent for the TV set.

(Farnsworth, by the way, lived and worked here in the early 1930s, first demonstrating the televising of live images to the public at the Franklin Institute in 1934.)

Cons: Success on Broadway, where Sorkin's career was launched with "A Few Good Men," might delay his return to television. Plus, with orchestra seats going for $100 or more, your cable bill might start looking almost reasonable.

_ Keep as much on your DVR as it can hold.

This might normally be the point in the season when you're deciding to let go of certain shows you've recorded but haven't watched, but think before you hit that "erase" button: Might a new-to-you episode of Fox's "K-Ville" or CBS' "Cane" look better in January or February, when the pickings could be slimmer?

Pros: There are few things in television as wasteful as the fall season launches, when dozens of new shows are forced to compete for the attention of viewers who already have plenty to watch. Couldn't hurt to give some series a second chance.

Cons: Or could it? Shows that weren't doing well before the strike started are less likely than most to survive a long one, so you risk getting hooked on a series that may never be heard from again.

_ Put yourself on a low-soap diet.

After insomniacs, next to feel the pain will be soap opera fans, whose daytime faves will reportedly start running out of scripts in a few weeks (and, yes, despite what the haters may say, those daytime dramas are written). So if you're already recording your soaps for later playback, you could try cutting down your viewing by a few episodes a week to stockpile for the future.

But if you end up going cold turkey, consider tuning in to ABC's "The View" instead. Though not as much of a soap opera as it was when Rosie O'Donnell was there, the ingredients for the occasional train wreck haven't disappeared altogether. And though the New York Times reports that "The View" employs union writers, ABC says that " 'The View' will continue without interruption."

You might also take heart from reports that MSNBC is talking with the apparently unsinkable O'Donnell about a prime-time show.

Pros: Not even a strike can drive away evil twins, amnesia victims and much-married schemers forever - you just need a way to maintain till it's over.

Cons: When it comes to daytime, soaps are just a gateway drug. If you find yourself drifting over to see what Jerry Springer's up to, put down the remote and call a friend. Keep talking till the urge passes.

_ Open (or upgrade) a Netflix account.

Not only is there an impressive amount of good TV available on DVD these days, but you no longer have to wait for the mail to come to take advantage of, say, the first season of NBC's "Friday Night Lights" or the first two seasons of "The Office," both of which are available through Netflix for instant viewing on your computer, the number of hours each month varying according to your subscription.

Though the instant-viewing menu's heavy on current NBC series - you might want to check out iTunes for other networks' shows - there are also an impressive number of past favorites, cult and otherwise, from "Dead Like Me" and "American Gothic: The Complete Series" to "Quantum Leap" and "Sliders."

Pros: Watch what you want, when you want.

Cons: Your computer might not be where you want to watch. Plus, much of Netflix's TV library, which includes the first six seasons of Fox's "24" and the first season of "Jericho," is still only available by mail.

_ Hit rewind.

I don't care how much of a couch potato you are - there has to have been some important series, sometime, that passed you by.

For me, it was "Twin Peaks," which I abandoned after an episode or two when it premiered in 1990, leaving me without some key pop-culture reference points. With the first two seasons now out in what they're calling "The Definitive Gold Box Edition" and a winter full of reruns looming, my interest is, well, piqued.

There are nearly as many choices as there are viewers, but let me put in yet another plug for the best show on television, HBO's "The Wire," whose first three seasons are already available (the fourth is due next month), and which, having already finished filming on its final season, is expected to return Jan. 6, strike or no strike.

Pros: You're reminded why writing matters.

Cons: Thanks to a deal struck before anyone realized just how big the home-video market would turn out to be, the writers behind the DVDs you choose will probably realize only a tiny slice of the profits. *

Ireneparalegal

11-07-2007, 08:03 PM

I didn't read all the posts here so I am sorry if this has been mentioned already. One of the writers on strike was talking on the radio today and stated one of the grievances is they currently receive 4 cents per DVD that is sold. They are asking for a 4 cent raise on that, making it 8 cents per DVD sold.

Mikado

11-07-2007, 09:36 PM

As I spend most of the winter watching hockey and educational TV, I should be ok, and even the only "New" sitcom I watch (Corner Gas) is safe, as, so far, the Canadian writers arent on strike (And even if they were, the entire 2007 season of CG is already in the can, ready to go) And, i have 1000s of hours of anime to rewatch if i get bored! :lol:

Mr. Television

11-07-2007, 09:39 PM

jimpickens

11-08-2007, 12:20 AM

Let these bozos strike there are lots of talented non union writers who would love to get the money that these guys make. I'll just do what I always do watch cable, read a book, delve into my movie library, play my ps2, go to the shooting range, go hunting, surf the net or go to a movie I seldom watch network TV.

dawsongirl

11-08-2007, 02:11 AM

dawsongirl

11-08-2007, 02:19 AM

Part of me finds these strikers very selfish. Fine, so they walk out in protest and voluntarily agree to leave their jobs. But do they realize how many people they are putting out of work?? And what will those people get when this strike is over? Nothing. Nothing but several weeks of no paychecks. They're not going to get 8 cents a DVD. Why should they be forced to go on strike when they get NOTHING out of it? When a strike affects that many people involuntarily, I don't think they should be allowed to strike. Contracts can be negotiated without a picket line. Teachers can't strike and they still manage to get what they want.

Dean Winchester

11-08-2007, 02:28 AM

I think people are being too rash by postponing 24 for instance until next season. Strikes don't last forever. We had strikes in 80, 81 and 88 and the shows premiered in November (in 1980) and October (in 1981 and 1988), it really didn't make THAT big of a difference. If this strike ends at the beginning of December, there's still four months left to crank out episodes. Most shows are 8-10 episodes into the season filmed-wise anyways.

Brent88

11-08-2007, 02:40 AM

The 1988 strike lasted 5 months and was mostly over the summer. This is a much worse scenario.

But you're right, it could be over next week for all we know. I think the schedule is subject to change for sure, but all 24 episodes most likely won't be produced so it could always come back, but a bit later than usual.

Chelsea

11-08-2007, 11:57 AM

Dean Winchester

11-08-2007, 03:19 PM

One scenario I think we *could* see for shows that already have full orders is that, if the strike goes into, say, February or March - is the shows filling out their production orders anyway, and running into the summer.
exactly, whose to say that they can't air shows in the summer? I never understood why they only air reality shows during that time. Even tho I never really watched the show, I was ticked off when a friend told me that ABC insisted the series finale of Alias aired during May sweeps instead of maybe making five more episodes to air during the summer, since the final season of that show was short enough as is due to Jen Garner's maternity leave, but ABC (as well as other networks) are just too darn stubborn to consider airing episodes in late May or June or whatever so the last season was abbrieviated. If anything, new episodes of CSI or Grey's Anatomy in June will bring these networks summer ratings unseen since Survivor and American Idol first premiered as summer tryouts.

JulieSomoski

11-08-2007, 05:02 PM

BTY was great tonight too. I hope the strike doesn't kill it.

It did mention in one of the articles that shows with full season pickups (Back to You) are safe and are the best bet of coming back next season. I just hope this strike lasts soon. I don't think I could live with just 9 episodes of Back to You this season. Plus, while FOX does try airing it after Idol come March, it's all going to be repeats. And no one likes a repeat.

tbswatcher

11-08-2007, 06:27 PM

What about chuck? I don't know if I could survive it being cancelled.

Mr. Television

11-08-2007, 06:38 PM

I doubt they'll air any new shows in the summer except shows that are already going off the air ( for example Scrubs). Any leftover shows they'll probably just hold back for next year.

Dean Winchester

11-08-2007, 06:42 PM

I doubt they'll air any new shows in the summer except shows that are already going off the air ( for example Scrubs). Any leftover shows they'll probably just hold back for next year.
CW aired the last three episodes of One Tree Hill's fourth season last summer, and that show is coming back in January.

There's no reason why not to burn a few episodes off in the summer, would give people an incentive to tune in since most serial type programs don't repeat well, only sitcoms do well in the summer and let's face it, there are no Seinfeld or Friends type of sitcoms out there now

Brent88

11-08-2007, 06:48 PM

Dean Winchester

11-08-2007, 06:52 PM

I doubt you see new episodes in the summer unless the series is cancelled. Viewership is much much lower then. The only shows that do well in the summer are reality. The CW tried a scripted show last summer(Hidden Palms) and it failed big time. ABC aired the serialized Traveler, and it failed.
well, most years there aren't strikes. I think if half this season is going to be reruns and reality, that audiences would be receptive to seeing new episodes of Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and CSI in June/July. They need to kind of think of right now as time that will go against summer hiatus. I mean, American Idol may be the biggest show on television, but it can't carry the entire season on it's own.

Mr. Television

11-08-2007, 06:56 PM

JulieSomoski

11-08-2007, 06:58 PM

I doubt they'll air any new shows in the summer except shows that are already going off the air ( for example Scrubs). Any leftover shows they'll probably just hold back for next year.

Do you mean leftover as in episodes that were picked up but never prodcued? Say, for Back to You, it got 24 episodes picked up, but only 9 were prodcued and ready to air. So, will they air the other 15 next season, cut the order short, or air and produce them immediately after the strike is over (even if that means airing the rest of the season into the summer)?

Mr. Television

11-08-2007, 07:07 PM

Do you mean leftover as in episodes that were picked up but never prodcued? Say, for Back to You, it got 24 episodes picked up, but only 9 were prodcued and ready to air. So, will they air the other 15 next season, cut the order short, or air and produce them immediately after the strike is over (even if that means airing the rest of the season into the summer)?
It depends when the strike gets over. If the strike is long and If BTY gets renewed I think they'll hold a lot of the shows back for the fall but if it gets canceled I can see Fox burning the rest of them off in the summer. A long strike isn't going to help BTY though because AI was supposed to help it in midseason.

Pavan

11-08-2007, 07:08 PM

Brent88

11-08-2007, 07:16 PM

What do you think are the chances that the directors and actors go out on strike next summer? I know their contracts are up then.

Not sure yet. It seems the DGA will probably fold pretty easily, it's the SAG everyone seems concerned about. I do think if the WGA strike ends before the summer, then the SAG will take the same deal and there won't be a 2nd strike. It's only if the WGA is still on strike come summer(hopefully not) that I think the SAG would too.

JulieSomoski

11-08-2007, 07:17 PM

It depends on how long the strike lasts. If it lasts say until end of December, I think some episodes will have to be cut. So, for example Back to You's 24 will probably be cut to like 18. If the strike lasts say like March or April, we can forget about any more new episodes this season and production won't start again until August for the next season.

So then, if the strike lasts until March or April, will the 24 episode order be cut to just the 9 they already have, or will they cut down to say 13 and air the other 4 next season?

I believe that's what happened with The Wonder Years in 1988. Since the strike lasted into the fall, they had to cut down the 22 episode to order back to 19, and that didn't even happen in the fall.

I see repeats for Back to You after American Idol come March. I guess thats kind of a good thing, because for all those people who never saw the show, they can catch up on it after idol. But for me, it sucks, because what I've been waiting for (BTY airing new after AI) isn't gonna happen.

Pavan

11-08-2007, 07:35 PM

JulieSomoski

11-08-2007, 07:37 PM

If the strikes lasts through April, they won't be able to shoot any more episodes most likely (sitcoms usually are in production from August-April), so it will be 9 and done for the season.

That's awful. A show having 9 episodes for a full season is a shame. Too bad no deals can be made and end this strike. It's only day 4, and I've already have enough. If this strike lasts that long, I really can't wait to see what April's schedule is gonna be like . . .

Brent88

11-08-2007, 07:42 PM

That's awful. A show having 9 episodes for a full season is a shame. Too bad no deals can be made and end this strike. It's only day 4, and I've already have enough. If this strike lasts that long, I really can't wait to see what April's schedule is gonna be like . . .

I know, it really sucks. I think it sucks even worse for serialized shows. :(

Pavan

11-08-2007, 07:42 PM

Dean Winchester

11-08-2007, 07:54 PM

It is awful. The 1988 strike was from March 7 to August 7, 1988. So really a month of production was stopped for the 87-88 season, since April is when shows stop production for the current season.

interesting. That could explain in hindsight why the "series finale" of Facts Of Life was so awful. It basically felt like a regular episode except for the three minutes at the end that was supposed to "series finale" it. Maybe they planned a series finale in 1988 (besides the Blair-centric episode where she buys Eastland) but with the strike, pretty much had to improvise the ending as a tag scene to an episode that had already been written (which was what the ending was basically, a tag scene).

To be honest tho, when they knew the strike was coming up, shouldn't the writers have gone on writing binges to deliver before November 1st happened? They could've done four or five more scripts/ideas so the shows could still film episodes while the strike is going on.

Dean Winchester

11-08-2007, 08:50 PM

Buffyboy323

11-08-2007, 09:07 PM

one thing I'm curious about when it comes to certain shows that are at the end of the line (like Scrubs, and ER is also rumored to be in their final season). If the strike goes on long enough that no additional episodes are made this season, could NBC pull a page out of the HBO book and greenlight a mini-final season for both of those to air next season? What to compare this to would be the way HBO split up the final seasons of Sopranos and Sex And The City to air well apart from each other. I don't watch Sopranos so I am not completely sure how they handled it, but I know with Sex And The City, instead of doing a typical 18 episode season to send it off, they ordered 12 episodes to air during the summer of 2003, and eight additional episodes to wrap the series up in early 2004. If Scrubs or ER wind up with only 9 or 10 episodes this season, would NBC consider ordering a half-season or so of those shows to give them the series finales they deserve.... or do the networks not have the smarts to think of such things, kinda like how they try to avoid airing shows in the summer even tho cable has proven that people will watch television shows in July if the quality is there.

"The Sopranos" had 12 episodes in 2006 and 9 in 2007 - counting as one complete season.

ER's writer's made sure to write 3 important episodes back to back before they went on strike, - but if the strike does affect ER's possible send-off and storyline (along with Scrubs) then it should absolutely have another season. These two shows deserve it, and it wouldn't be fair for both the fans and network (but mostly the fans, since the networks are what caused this).

*Variety reports today that "ER" executive producer John Wells would very much like to see NBC's long-running "ER" to be kept open beyond this season.

While the network never officially announced this year as the last, it is widely believed that NBC will close the curtain next May, because ratings have declined and costs per episode have reached double the amount of a first-year show.

Wells announced that he will start talking to the network's execs next month about bringing the show back next fall.

Also:

Still, if producer Warner Bros. TV could find a way to reduce the cost of "ER" a bit, NBC might have an incentive to keep "ER" open. Skein still averages a 4 rating in the adults 18-49 demo, above NBC's overall demo average this season of a 3.4 rating.

Does Wells think a deal can get done?

"I hope so," he said, adding he and the show's producers still have some stories to tell.

Brent88

11-09-2007, 12:14 AM

It is awful. The 1988 strike was from March 7 to August 7, 1988. So really a month of production was stopped for the 87-88 season, since April is when shows stop production for the current season. The strike ended in August, so the shows were just a few weeks behind from prodution for the 88-89 season, hence why most shows launched in early-mid October of that year.

So, the 2007 strike will be worse if it lasts long.

Exactly! I am very worried that there will be irreversible damage to network TV after this. In 1988, 10% of viewers never came back and that was with minimal effects on the actual TV season! Viewership is much lower now(having never recovered from that) and there are so many more options, it will be much more devastating.

What really sucks is there are SO many new shows this year I am loving:

Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, Women's Murder Club

If there are no more episodes after January until September(if we're lucky), will anyone care when they do come back, if they do? :( The serialized shows won't repeat well at all either.

Plus returning shows: Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, all have been great this year.

This is just horrible.

Brian Damage

11-09-2007, 12:22 AM

Buffyboy323

11-09-2007, 12:27 AM

Brent88

11-09-2007, 12:30 AM

The time to strike is now. I know it sucks for viewers, but the writers have a lot of leverage this time around. These companies make millions and millions of dollars, they more than very well can share the wealth.

I understand why ya'll are striking, but it beyond sucks for the thousands of people out there who will have a terrible holiday season and may even lose their jobs because of this.

and yes I know, the producers deserve a lot of the blame for this too, but you're here and they are not, lol.

I am just so disappointed in both sides over this mess. There are no winners here.

friendsfan77

11-09-2007, 12:34 AM

The time to strike is now. I know it sucks for viewers, but the writers have a lot of leverage this time around. These companies make millions and millions of dollars, they more than very well can share the wealth.
I've been thinking about this all week. I'm worried that the raise in question would screw over the consumers in the end, but then I think about how big some of the companies are *cough*Viacom*cough* and think that they should probably be able to give your union a raise without having to screw all the little guys over.

I just wish that people didn't have to lose their jobs over this.. :(

Brian Damage

11-09-2007, 12:39 AM

I understand why ya'll are striking, but it beyond sucks for the thousands of people out there who will have a terrible holiday season and may even lose their jobs because of this.

and yes I know, the producers deserve a lot of the blame for this too, but you're here and they are not, lol.

Brent, believe me, nobody wants to strike and I know that other people outside of the WGA are being affected. Believe it or not, the union is sympathetic to that. Ultimately, this needed to be done. It's time for big businesses to pay up. Not every writer makes 200,000 dollars a year, despite what these corporations tell you.

Brian Damage

11-09-2007, 12:41 AM

I've been thinking about this all week. I'm worried that the raise in question would screw over the consumers in the end, but then I think about how big some of the companies are *cough*Viacom*cough* and think that they should probably be able to give your union a raise without having to screw all the little guys over.

I just wish that people didn't have to lose their jobs over this. :(

In the end, Viacom and others will still make their millions. Just wait, once this is over, these corporation will cry poverty and lay off a bunch of talented writers and other staff members.

Dean Winchester

11-09-2007, 12:42 AM

If there are no more episodes after January until September(if we're lucky), will anyone care when they do come back, if they do? :( The serialized shows won't repeat well at all either.

well, sometimes cable can go an extensive amount of time before bringing a season back and yet the viewers are still there. Nip/Tuck for instance just began it's fifth season last week, and there hadn't been a new episode since before last Christmas, yet the viewers still watch it. HBO took some notoriously long breaks between The Sopranos and it remained one of pay-cable's biggest shows ever, even though they always took 15-20 month hiatuses between episodes. Curb Your Enthusiasm's sixth season premiered in mid-September, and before that, season five ended before Christmas 2005. That was 21 months between shows and CYE still does well. Shows like 24, Lost, etc.... have audiences that could go 18 months between episodes and get right back into it when the next season premieres.

Mr. Television

11-09-2007, 12:11 PM

http://www.tvguide.com/ask-matt

JulieSomoski

11-09-2007, 04:32 PM

As of now, it doesn't if even seem like any side is really trying to end this. I just thin kit's gonna keep going the way it is for awhile with either side not making a move.

Looks like Fox has prepared the most for this, though. They already have their entire midseason lineup through the end of the season. I wonder what ABC and CBS will do, especially with their sitcoms. I'd hate to see BBT, which has been growing in viewers since the first episode, go into repeats. This trike will definitely put a dent into TV audiences from now onn. If 10$ of audicnes were oost in 1988 over a summer strike, this could really be the end of television as we know it.

Dean Winchester

11-09-2007, 05:06 PM

in a sense, I think it's selfish of the writers because the people who are gonna get screwed are the fans. Go strike when the season is on hiatus, or wait until most shows have produced at least 20 episodes for the season.

Personally tho, I think the "tv season" as we know it should be considered irrelevant. Cable has totally changed the game and networks should follow suit. Plus, imagine the shows that might have lasted longer if they didn't feel obliged to having to do 22 episodes every eight months. HBO, FX, TNT and other cable outlets have shown that you can air shows at any time of the year and people will watch, and above that, they let the people work on their own time and pace with no real deadline. Just look at Larry David deciding to do at least two more seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm... he only needs to do 10 episodes a season every year and a half.... he walked away from Seinfeld in 1996 because 22-24 episodes every year became too much for him, yet with Curb, HBO has allowed him to do his thing, and he's been doing it for eight years now and plans "at least" 2 or 3 more go-rounds at it.

Instead of doing straight Sept-May seasons, the networks should start doing what the cable networks do and just schedule shows whenever. Shows like Sex And The City, Nip/Tuck, Entourage, Six Feet Under, The Closer, Weeds and other cable programs prove that people will watch a television show in the summer (that isn't reality) if they feel like the quality is there.

I say eschew the "seasons" as we know it and do it more free-form like how cable networks have done so successfully at.

JulieSomoski

11-09-2007, 05:37 PM

Dean Winchester

11-09-2007, 05:50 PM

it's not a dumb idea at all. A lot of serialized shows would work better in a format like this. Hell, Fox already does this with 24. Shows like Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Lost (which ABC is doing this with) and others would benefit by being given a straight order of episodes that air in consecutive order over 22-25 weeks (with obvious exceptions to the rule like Christmas, the Oscars, Super Bowl, etc...), and then another high-rated serialized show would air their season. Plus, the ratings would be year-round. People grow impatient with serialized shows airing 22 episodes over a 35-38 week period, meaning almost half the time there are reruns. The cable networks always run their show consecutively until the season finishes, and then the show will come back when it's ready for a new season.

The September/May season at this point is becoming a relic like VHS tapes. Cable is starting to replace the networks because they are becoming more viewer-friendly. All you have to do is look at Curb Your Enthusiasm vs. Seinfeld. Larry David's been doing Curb since 1999 and still wants to do two or three more seasons, he wanted out on Seinfeld after 92 or 93 and Jerry had to keep persuading him to return to it until Larry was convinced the show finally felt the show ran it's course and left after season 7. Larry is given more creative control on HBO and is allowed to do the show ON HIS OWN TIME instead of having to do 22 episodes in an eight month cycle when some writers just don't function like that, and Curb will more than likely run over a decade now because HBO has given him freedom that NBC wouldn't. South Park on Comedy Central is another example, it's been on over a decade and Matt and Trey deliver only as many episodes a season as they want, on their own time, and the show isn't going anywhere because they only have to make new episodes when they want.

Pavan

11-09-2007, 05:59 PM

Dean Winchester

11-09-2007, 06:21 PM

Shows like Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives are too valuable to not have all season. Lost and 24 are shows that repeat terrible. Heroes would be in this group as well. NBC should try it with Heroes, but right now NBC needs something year-round. They are in bad shape. The primetime soap repeat better than shows like Lost, 24, Heroes.

It really isn't anything new to have 22 episodes over 35 weeks. We had that in the 80s and 90s, no one complained then. The action serialized show fans are the ones complaining, why else do you think 24 and Lost are airing in bunches now?
DH actually lost me last season because they had a good run of episodes, then took two months off and came back with three or four of the worst episodes of the show's history (the arc with Dixie Carter and Orson's ex-wife), if they aired all 22-23 episodes in consecutive order, I may have had more patience through the crap episodes, but when I waited 2 months for that, I quit watching. I did come back this season, but if it does the same **** like they did last season with some incredibly horrid episodes, I'd stop watching for good.

In the 80's and 90's, the "serialized soap" shows like Dallas, Dynasty, 90210 and Melrose had extremely long 30+ episode seasons with very few gaps in between episodes and no repeats during the season. The difference is that back then, there were more sitcoms and the sort on. Today, sitcoms are irrelevant and most hour long shows are serialized. People can deal with going three weeks without a new My Name Is Earl episode much more than they can deal with three weeks between Lost episodes.

Ireneparalegal

11-09-2007, 06:26 PM

I'm sorry, but that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Everyone knows the regular telelvision season is September-May . . . it's been that way since 1950, and I doubt it will ever change. TV audiences will be lost even more if networks just decide to air new shows whenever. People know if they want to check out a new show, it's gonna be in the fall.

If writer's don't like the Sept-may seasons, then tell them to go to HBO. It's not our problems, is it? Plus, the strike has nothing to do with that in the first place, so it's irrelevant to the problem at hand.
I remember when television seasons began in September and ended in May, with no hiatus whatsoever. That's the way it was with the three networks. However, we now live in the era of cable channels offering original programming and we now have more than three networks (ABC, CBS & NBC). I don't like it at all that some stations seasons begin in November, some shows begin reruns in January, some programming have at least two new seasons within a one year period, it is just so confusing to me at times. The main reason I no longer watch Prison Break and Lost was because of the hiatus issue.

Pavan

11-09-2007, 06:30 PM

Late night talk show hosts like Jay Leno are refusing to cross the picket line (which mean they are with their writers 100%), which means the nonwriting staff of those shows could be laid off. One idea is that guest co-hosts might start soon. Read today's blog for details...

Brent88

11-09-2007, 07:35 PM

JulieSomoski

11-09-2007, 07:40 PM

I remember when television seasons began in September and ended in May, with no hiatus whatsoever. That's the way it was with the three networks. However, we now live in the era of cable channels offering original programming and we now have more than three networks (ABC, CBS & NBC). I don't like it at all that some stations seasons begin in November, some shows begin reruns in January, some programming have at least two new seasons within a one year period, it is just so confusing to me at times. The main reason I no longer watch Prison Break and Lost was because of the hiatus issue.

Yes . . . we could get 30 episodes a season because a new episode aired almost every week. It seems now we're getting a hiatus on shows every other week. I understand, the idea with lost is to cut down on the number of episodes in a season, so they can end in 3 years, but still, I hate it that they start in January. Same goes for FOX and 24.

Cable channels aren't completely taking over. I mean, majority of people still watch the broadcasting networks, but cable is growing a more stable audience nowadays.

Buffyboy323

11-09-2007, 08:21 PM

Personally tho, I think the "tv season" as we know it should be considered irrelevant. Cable has totally changed the game and networks should follow suit. Plus, imagine the shows that might have lasted longer if they didn't feel obliged to having to do 22 episodes every eight months. HBO, FX, TNT and other cable outlets have shown that you can air shows at any time of the year and people will watch, and above that, they let the people work on their own time and pace with no real deadline. Just look at Larry David deciding to do at least two more seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm... he only needs to do 10 episodes a season every year and a half.... he walked away from Seinfeld in 1996 because 22-24 episodes every year became too much for him, yet with Curb, HBO has allowed him to do his thing, and he's been doing it for eight years now and plans "at least" 2 or 3 more go-rounds at it.

Instead of doing straight Sept-May seasons, the networks should start doing what the cable networks do and just schedule shows whenever. Shows like Sex And The City, Nip/Tuck, Entourage, Six Feet Under, The Closer, Weeds and other cable programs prove that people will watch a television show in the summer (that isn't reality) if they feel like the quality is there.

I say eschew the "seasons" as we know it and do it more free-form like how cable networks have done so successfully at.

"Free-form" isn't a good idea (for me at least). I wouldn't be able to handle that with all my shows. I had to wait 2 years for The Sopranos to come back. 2 years! It just isn't worth waiting for the producers to decide when they're ready to return. What happens if 80% of TV producers decide to have their shows start in February, so they don't have to work during the Summer? I could not deal with that.

For the last few years, Nip/Tuck started in September and ended in December. And before the strike, this season was the first time they got a 22 episode order. FX planned to air half the episodes through December, then the second half in the Spring. I like this better than the "free-form" run - but then look at LOST last year. They lost (no pun) a lot of viewers from that.

Also, there's only so many shows a Network has. HBO only has a few. Rome would air it's season, then Deadwood, then The Sopranos (etc). Network TV has a lot more slots to fill.

And for all shows to start when they want, then be gone for however long would just be too confusing.

Buffyboy323

11-09-2007, 08:31 PM

Lost and 24 are shows that repeat terrible. Heroes would be in this group as well. NBC should try it with Heroes, but right now NBC needs something year-round. They are in bad shape. The primetime soap repeat better than shows like Lost, 24, Heroes.

The action serialized show fans are the ones complaining, why else do you think 24 and Lost are airing in bunches now?

I never understood why they worry about shows not repeating well. No matter what show it is, I won't watch if I just saw the episode a few weeks ago (except for the one's I choose to watch again). And in the age of Tivo, I'm sure if people want to watch their favorite episodes again, they'll just save them.

As one of those "action serialized" fans, my complaint was that ABC seemed to show 2 episodes of LOST, then it was gone for weeks and weeks. Then it came back with 3 episodes, and was gone for 4 more weeks. It's not the show - it's the network.

Dean Winchester

11-09-2007, 08:44 PM

I never understood why they worry about shows not repeating well.

they don't want to ruin the precious season-to-date standings. Another thing I find somewhat irrelevant. If HBO can go two years between Sopranos seasons (which was by far the biggest show they ever ran), what would be so wrong with going 7 months between Desperate Housewives or Grey's Anatomy seasons?

Mr. Television

11-09-2007, 09:02 PM

"Free-form" isn't a good idea (for me at least). I wouldn't be able to handle that with all my shows. I had to wait 2 years for The Sopranos to come back. 2 years! It just isn't worth waiting for the producers to decide when they're ready to return. What happens if 80% of TV producers decide to have their shows start in February, so they don't have to work during the Summer? I could not deal with that.

For the last few years, Nip/Tuck started in September and ended in December. And before the strike, this season was the first time they got a 22 episode order. FX planned to air half the episodes through December, then the second half in the Spring. I like this better than the "free-form" run - but then look at LOST last year. They lost (no pun) a lot of viewers from that.

Also, there's only so many shows a Network has. HBO only has a few. Rome would air it's season, then Deadwood, then The Sopranos (etc). Network TV has a lot more slots to fill.

And for all shows to start when they want, then be gone for however long would just be too confusing.
Exactly. People have to realize that HBO and Showtime along with FX only have a few original series . They have other things on their networks. HBO and Showtime air movies mainly. The major networks only have original tv shows except when they rerun them.

While I don't mind a few shows starting late and running straight through like 24, I wouldn't like it if they all did it. Some I would probably just forget about. As for only airing 13episodes of a series instead of 22, I wouldn't like that either. You would only get a couple months and then they'd be gone again. The only show I watch that does that is the Shield. With the strike who knows when that'll be back. I used to watch Monk and I do like it but I always forget when an original episode is on.

Buffyboy323

11-09-2007, 09:03 PM

they don't want to ruin the precious season-to-date standings. Another thing I find somewhat irrelevant. If HBO can go two years between Sopranos seasons (which was by far the biggest show they ever ran), what would be so wrong with going 7 months between Desperate Housewives or Grey's Anatomy seasons?
Oh, I meant I never understood if they cared if a rerun didn't have too good ratings. Of course it wouldn't (serialized or not). I don't know why it matters to them.

It worked for The Sopranos. And it works for 24. But I don't think it will work for every show. There needs to be shows on for 8 months, with a break every few weeks.

Pavan

11-09-2007, 10:37 PM

As one of those "action serialized" fans, my complaint was that ABC seemed to show 2 episodes of LOST, then it was gone for weeks and weeks. Then it came back with 3 episodes, and was gone for 4 more weeks. It's not the show - it's the network.

So what would be better? Airing how NBC aired Heroes last year? That huge break from the end of Feb sweeps to the end of April was crazy and viewership declined when it returned. Maybe that is why it is suffering declines in the ratings this season. I would rather have the episodes spread out during the season, especially for a rookie.

As for Lost, it really wasn't that bad of gaps, take a look at the airdates for S1/S2:

Season 1

1. 1- 1 100 22 Sep 04 Pilot (1)
2. 1- 2 101 29 Sep 04 Pilot (2)
3. 1- 3 102 6 Oct 04 Tabula Rasa
4. 1- 4 103 13 Oct 04 Walkabout
5. 1- 5 104 20 Oct 04 White Rabbit
6. 1- 6 105 27 Oct 04 House of the Rising Sun
7. 1- 7 106 3 Nov 04 The Moth
8. 1- 8 107 10 Nov 04 Confidence Man
9. 1- 9 108 17 Nov 04 Solitary
***(9 straight weeks of new episodes, one week off)***
10. 1-10 109 1 Dec 04 Raised by Another
11. 1-11 110 8 Dec 04 All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues
***(2 straight weeks of new episodes before holiday break of 3 weeks)***
12. 1-12 111 5 Jan 05 Whatever the Case May Be
13. 1-13 112 12 Jan 05 Hearts and Minds
14. 1-14 113 19 Jan 05 Special
***(3 straight weeks of new episodes, before 2 weeks off)***
15. 1-15 114 9 Feb 05 Homecoming
16. 1-16 115 16 Feb 05 Outlaws
17. 1-17 116 23 Feb 05 ...In Translation
18. 1-18 117 2 Mar 05 Numbers
***(4 straight weeks of new episodes, before 3 weeks off)
19. 1-19 118 30 Mar 05 Deus Ex Machina
20. 1-20 119 6 Apr 05 Do No Harm
***(2 straight weeks of new episodes, before 3 weeks off, 2 weeks off really, because a clip show aired on 4/27)***
S- 0 0 27 Apr 05 Lost: The Journey
21. 1-21 120 4 May 05 The Greater Good
22. 1-22 121 11 May 05 Born to Run
23. 1-23 122 18 May 05 Exodus (1)
24. 1-24 123 25 May 05 Exodus (2)
***(4 straight weeks of new episodes to end the season)***
Comments: Maybe they didn't need to air the two in December, so they could have had more in March/April, but it was a new series, and it needed to air and not have the entire December off. I really think it was evenly spread out. 9 straight weeks of episodes was the highest and only 3 weeks off in a row was the highest.

Season 2

25. 2- 1 201 21 Sep 05 Man of Science, Man of Faith
26. 2- 2 202 28 Sep 05 Adrift
27. 2- 3 203 5 Oct 05 Orientation
28. 2- 4 204 12 Oct 05 Everybody Hates Hugo
29. 2- 5 205 19 Oct 05 ...And Found
***(5 straight weeks of new episodes, before 2 weeks off)***
30. 2- 6 206 9 Nov 05 Abandoned
31. 2- 7 207 16 Nov 05 The Other 48 Days
32. 2- 8 208 23 Nov 05 Collision
33. 2- 9 209 30 Nov 05 What Kate Did
***(4 straight weeks of new episodes before holiday break of 5 weeks)***
34. 2-10 210 11 Jan 06 The 23rd Psalm
35. 2-11 211 18 Jan 06 The Hunting Party
36. 2-12 212 25 Jan 06 Fire + Water
***(3 straight weeks of new episode before a week off)***
37. 2-13 213 8 Feb 06 The Long Con
38. 2-14 214 15 Feb 06 One of Them
***(2 straight weeks of new episodes before a week off)***
39. 2-15 215 1 Mar 06 Maternity Leave
***(a week of new episode before 2 weeks off)***
40. 2-16 216 22 Mar 06 The Whole Truth
41. 2-17 217 29 Mar 06 Lockdown
42. 2-18 218 5 Apr 06 Dave
43. 2-19 219 12 Apr 06 S.O.S.
***(4 straight weeks of new episodes before a week off...2 weeks not counting the clip show)***
S- 0 26 Apr 06 Lost: Reckoning
44. 2-20 220 3 May 06 Two for the Road
45. 2-21 221 10 May 06 ?
46. 2-22 222 17 May 06 Three Minutes
47. 2-23 223 24 May 06 Live Together, Die Alone (1)
48. 2-24 224 24 May 06 Live Together, Die Alone (2)
***(5 straight weeks of new episodes to close the season)***
Comments: This season didn't have the 9 episodes straight to start the year, but it didn't air any in December, so the season ended with 5 straight weeks of new episodes, actually 9 of the last 10 weeks were new episodes.

It really wasn't that bad, but Lost fans are intense and want new episodes every week. So, I guess it is better to air them all in a row from Feb-May. If the network didn't have more hits, then they wouldn't do that. Maybe that is why NBC won't do it for Heroes.

Dean Winchester

11-09-2007, 10:41 PM

well, I don't really watch Heroes but the fans so far are likening this season with season 2 of Desperate Housewives. I.E., it became a victim of first season hype and the second season isn't coming close in quality.

Mr. Television

11-09-2007, 10:54 PM

Heroes has been very subpar this year. I can't believe they sent Hiro to ancient Japan for 2 months. :ohno: I'm still watching though and hopefully they'll fix it since they're on a break now, maybe for the year.

Buffyboy323

11-09-2007, 11:13 PM

LOST had gaps throughout, and it felt like forever until it returned. All those garbage clip shows count as week's off too. Heroes' break earlier this year was rediculous. LOST's break last year was beyond rediculous. Both shows suffered because of those breaks, and I'm afraid that's going to happen with a lot more shows when this strike is over.

Buffyboy323

11-09-2007, 11:26 PM

So what would be better? Airing how NBC aired Heroes last year? That huge break from the end of Feb sweeps to the end of April was crazy and viewership declined when it returned. Maybe that is why it is suffering declines in the ratings this season. I would rather have the episodes spread out during the season, especially for a rookie.

It really wasn't that bad, but Lost fans are intense and want new episodes every week. So, I guess it is better to air them all in a row from Feb-May. If the network didn't have more hits, then they wouldn't do that. Maybe that is why NBC won't do it for Heroes.

Yes, it would be better to air LOST how NBC aired Heroes last season. Heroes hardly had any breaks, and almost aired their entire season. ABC should have kept LOST on all through last season - especially with all the negative feedback from fans, and the ratings decine that happened last fall. Or they should have at least given us 11 episodes in the fall, then 12 in the Spring.

Mr. Television

11-10-2007, 12:13 AM

Yes, it would be better to air LOST how NBC aired Heroes last season. Heroes hardly had any breaks, and almost aired their entire season. ABC should have kept LOST on all through last season - especially with all the negative feedback from fans, and the ratings decine that happened last fall. Or they should have at least given us 11 episodes in the fall, then 12 in the Spring.
exactly. And it didn't help matters that the first part of Lost's season wasn't very good. Half the cast was barely on it. Luckily the last part of the season was much better.

Chelsea

11-10-2007, 12:18 AM

I say air a show start to finish, no reruns, all new episodes. Insert a new series afterward. Bump production orders TV-wide to 26 episodes.

MrCleveland

11-10-2007, 12:53 AM

I hope they put specials and reruns of older shows back on TV. I'm also thinking of writing scripts at this time now.

friendsfan77

11-10-2007, 12:55 AM

I never understood why they worry about shows not repeating well.
I don't get it either. Networks have always rerun shows in the past in the summer and even during the regular seasons' breaks and they didn't crash and burn.

And then they mention in some of these news related articles that soaps don't repeat well. I take it these folks have not heard of the network SOAPnet (granted they've made crappy schedule changes and program additions in the past few months), it is proof that if a cable channel can air repeats of them, if need be if the strike lasts too long, it shouldn't pain CBS, ABC, or NBC to dig into the vaults a little if for some reason because of all this new episodes can't be written. Not to mention that the networks themselves have run classic episodes on holidays.

Mr. Television

11-10-2007, 11:05 AM

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Strike-Chart-Long/800026937

Strike Chart: How Long Before Your Shows Go Dark?

There seems to be little doubt that the writers' strike will result in a shorter TV season, but just how short are we talking? Well, as you might've guessed, it varies from show to show. Those programs that are either highly efficient (Friday Night Lights) or have entered the season with a backlog of episodes (Men in Trees, Law & Order: SVU) will be in originals well into the new year. But series with tighter production schedules (i.e., nearly every half-hour comedy) will go dark almost immediately. Of course, figuring out how many episodes remain in your favorite shows' arsenals requires a lot of numbers crunching — and as I've come to learn, the only thing you Ausholes despise more than a Wednesday without AA is mathematics. With that in mind, I pulled together this incredibly handy (and 85 percent complete) cheat sheet. Keep in mind: The information below is subject to change, particularly if both sides get back to the bargaining table and resolve this frakkin' thing!

30 Rock: Ten episodes will be produced. Five episodes have aired, so there are five left.

Back to You: Nine episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are three left.

Bionic Woman: Roughly nine episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are three left.

Bones: Twelve episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are six left.

Boston Legal: Fifteen episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are nine left.

Brothers & Sisters: Twelve episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are six left.

Chuck: Thirteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are six left.

CSI: NY: Fourteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are seven left.

Desperate Housewives: Ten episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are four left.

Dirty Sexy Money: Eleven episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are five left.

Friday Night Lights: Fifteen episodes will be produced. The sixth episode airs tonight, Nov. 9, so there are nine left.

Gossip Girl: Thirteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are six left.

Grey's Anatomy: Eleven episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are four left.

Heroes: Twelve episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are five left.

House: Twelve episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are six left.

Jericho: Seven episodes will be produced. None have aired yet, so there are seven episodes left.

Law & Order: SVU: Fourteen episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are eight left.

Lost: Eight episodes will be produced. None have aired yet, so there are eight episodes left.

Medium: Nine episodes will be produced. None have aired yet, so there are nine episodes left.

Men in Trees: Nineteen episodes will be produced. The fifth episode airs tonight, Nov. 9, so there are 14 left.

Numbers: Twelve episodes will be produced. The seventh episodes airs tonight, Nov. 9, so there are five left.

One Tree Hill: Twelve episodes will be produced. None have aired yet, so there are twelve episodes left.

The Office: Twelve half-hour episodes will be produced. Eleven half-hour episodes have aired, so there is one half-hour episode left.

Prison Break: Thirteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are six left.

Private Practice: Ten or 11 episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are four or five left.

Pushing Daisies: Nine episodes will be produced. Five episodes have aired, so there are four left.

Reaper: Ten to 12 episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are three to five left.

Samantha Who?: Twelve episodes will be produced. Four episodes have aired, so there are eight left.

Scrubs: Twelve episodes will be produced. Three episodes have aired, so there are nine left.

Shark: Eleven episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are five left.

Smallville: Fifteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are eight left.

Supernatural: Ten to 12 episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are four to six left.

Ugly Betty: Twelve or 13 episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are five or six left.

• If your favorite show isn't included above, don't panic — it's not because I hate you. It's because I'm still trying to track down the info. As soon as I get it, I'll add it to the list.

Mr. Television

11-10-2007, 11:15 AM

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Scoop-Daisies-Trees/800026992

Scoop! Daisies, Trees Prep Season Finales

Add Pushing Daisies and Men in Trees to the list of shows preparing season finales as a result of the writers' strike.

Daisies creator extraordinaire Bryan Fuller informs me that the show's ninth episode — the last one for which a script is written — can function as a season finale in the event the strike extends into the new year and beyond.

"As we were scrambling to rewrite [Episode 9]," he reveals, "we added several elements that will put many balls into the air and hopefully encourage the audience to come back and see how they land."

Fuller confirms that production on the potential season finale got under way today, which means "our crew will now be able to work through Thanksgiving."

Over at Men in Trees, show-runner Jenny Bicks reports that prior to the strike, she prepared an alternate ending "in case the last episode we have written becomes our finale. We would be sad if this happened, but we are prepared."

As I pointed out in my handy strike chart, MIT — which came into the season with a backlog of unaired episodes — will be in the rare (and enviable) position of having nearly a season's worth of episodes in the can (19 in total) before it's forced to shut down production.

Scoobiedoo30

11-10-2007, 12:45 PM

from what I heard on the News The Strike could last 5 or 6 month's let's just hope that does not happen.

JulieSomoski

11-10-2007, 03:30 PM

At least it's good to hear some shows are actually prepared in case of a season-long strike. God, this is definitely 1 season we will never forget. 9 episodes for 1 season is insane . . . especially if it's a new show that's just getting off it's feet.

Brent88

11-12-2007, 03:02 AM

DeadlineHollywood:

URGENT! Glimmer Of Hope That Agents Bringing WGA & AMPTP Back In Touch. (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/glimmer-of-hope-that-agents-bringing-wga-amptp-back-in-touch/)

EXCLUSIVE: This is one of those stories where I don't want to put the kibosh on possible progress by reporting on it. But I also need to post news as it comes to me. I just learned tonight that certain Hollywood agents are "really in the middle of this right now." A source tells me that a partner in one of the major tenpercenteries is having "much conversation" with WGA negotiating committee topper Dave Young. At the same time, a partner at a different major agency is talking to AMPTP president Nick Counter. (For the moment, I'm not going to reveal the names of the agents involved.) Together, the agents' goal right now is to just bring both sides back in touch with one another. A phone call is about to happen, or may have already happened, between Young and Counter today, I'm told. "Apparently, there will be a chat," the source said. I'm told the agents involved are "encouraged by the activity today." There's also hope the agents can help clear away side issues and facilitate the re-start of settlement talks, now at a standstill.

Chelsea

11-12-2007, 10:08 AM

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6499826.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP&nid=2228
STRIKE COVERAGE: Why the Strike Will Be a Long One

Hot Issues, Harsh Words Impede Return to Bargaining Table

By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/10/2007 1:00:00 PM

Don’t expect the striketo end anytime soon. That is the word from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the Writers Guild of America and just about every industry observer after week one of the work stoppage.

While both sides said they were making progress before talks broke down late at night Sunday, Nov. 4, it now seems that no one is expecting negotiations to begin again anytime soon. "In 1988, they were out for five months, and we anticipate that they will be out at least that long," AMPTP president Nick Counter said.

"We are prepared to do whatever is necessary to get a contract," WGA West president Patric Verrone said. "If that includes picketing 14 studio sites a day plus an unknown number of location shoots every day, we will do that as long as we can."

The sense of pessimism may be the only thing the sides are agreeing on right now, including which party actually walked out of the talks the Sunday night before the strike began. The WGA claimed that the AMPTP walked out of talks at 9:30 p.m. (PST). The AMPTP said it did so because a negotiating-committee member jumped on the Internet and saw that the WGA East had gone on strike as of midnight (EST) and didn’t want to talk if the WGA wouldn’t "stop the clock."

"You don’t bargain with a gun to your head," Counter said.

From the tone of both sides, détente won’t come soon. "I don’t see anything happening until the first of the year," Counter said of the sides returning to the bargaining table. Many WGA members agreed.

Both sides said the best way to get back to the table officially may be for showrunners and studio or network executives to quietly exchange ideas and proposals through back channels.

"There is no trust right now between the sides," Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof said. "I feel that the best work to be done between now and January, if that is when we start talks again, is to have ongoing dialogue. But I don’t think we will be back at the table anytime soon."

"You have to know that a deal is [possible] before we go back to the table," Counter agreed.

Outside of the talks going forward through these back-channel negotiations, there are other ways the situation could progress. One twist could come if the AMPTP and the Directors Guild of America begin talking and get a new deal done. Their contract is up June 30, but industry sources said the AMPTP may consider the DGA easier to deal with than the WGA, and a deal with the DGA would pressure the WGA into following suit.

Another way would be through the help of a third-party mediator. In addition to the federal mediator already on hand, a big name from the political world or elsewhere could try to mediate. But Counter wants no part of that.

"I know because it’s Hollywood everyone wants a show, but this should be handled by the parties," he said.

The WGA and the AMPTP weren’t talking to each other last week, but each was standing strong on its side of the fight, with major issues still including compensation for streaming video and DVD sales

In the first week of picketing, many showrunners, including Marc Cherry of Desperate Housewives and Greg Daniels of The Office, decided not to continue in their other nonwriting roles on their shows, with many shows in essence shutting down a bit earlier than expected.

"That’s up to them; they may be in breach of contract, by the way, so I hope they have gotten legal advice on that," Counter warned.

Many studios and networks were beginning to scale back on costs by suspending deals for writers. "I don’t know why they would continue to pay me," Daniels said after his show was shut down last week.

And as the strike settles in for the long standoff many expect, both sides and the entire television industry continue to be frustrated knowing how progress was finally being made just before the situation blew up a week ago.

"We made more progress in 11 hours on Sunday than we did in the last three-and-a-half months," Verrone said.

"I’ve only been doing this since 1982, so what do I know, but we should have stayed at the table Sunday night," Counter added.

But the next round will most likely have to start with a few quiet calls between people who have worked together for a long time but are sitting on opposite ends of a fight.

"On a day-to-day basis, they are people I work with all the time and have a really good relationship with," said Neal Baer, executive producer of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, who also sits on the WGA negotiating committee. "So we know each other, but we have to talk; I’m sure there will be back-channeling."

Buffyboy323

11-12-2007, 03:56 PM

The basics of why the writers are on strike.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk

From Damon Lindelof, from "Lost"

"TELEVISION is dying.

I should have realized this four years ago when I first got my TiVo box, but denial is always the first stage of grief. I simply couldn’t acknowledge that this wonderful invention heralded the beginning of the end.

TiVo stores your favorite movies and shows on its hard drive, allowing you to pull up last night’s episode of “The Daily Show” as easily as you click open documents on your laptop. In fact, once you download the original broadcast — sorry, I meant to say “record” it — you can watch it at your leisure. The next morning. Next year. Your call. Because now? You own that episode.

Best of all, you got it free.

Television has always been free. Sure, if you want all the N.F.L. games in high definition, you have to pay the piper, but the broadcast networks still offer their entire schedules for absolutely nothing. The only catch, of course, is that you have to watch commercials. Economically, it’s a fair deal. The network pays for the shows, gives them to viewers, and makes its cash back through advertising. Which regrettably brings us to the most wonderful thing TiVo does: It enables you to ignore the commercials that keep the whole system running.

Twenty percent of American homes now contain hard drives that store movies and television shows indefinitely and allows you to fast-forward through commercials. These devices will probably proliferate at a significant rate and soon, almost everyone will have them. They’ll also get smaller and smaller, rendering the box that holds them obsolete, and the rectangular screen in your living room won’t really be a television anymore, it’ll be a computer. And running into the back of that computer, the wire that delivers unto you everything you watch? It won’t be cable; it will be the Internet.

This probably sounds exciting if you’re a TV viewer, but if you’re in the business of producing these shows, it’s nothing short of terrifying. This is how vaudevillians must have felt the first time they saw a silent movie; sitting there, suddenly realizing they just became extinct: after all, who wants another soft-shoe number when you can see Harold Lloyd hanging off a clock 50 feet tall?

Change always provokes fear, but I’d once believed that the death of our beloved television would unify all those affected, talent and studios, creators and suits. We’re all afraid and we’d all be afraid together. Instead we find ourselves so deeply divided.

The Writers Guild of America (of which I am a proud member) has gone on strike. I have spent the past week on the picket line outside Walt Disney Studios, my employer, chanting slogans and trudging slowly across the crosswalk.

The motivation for this drastic action — and a strike is drastic, a fact I grow more aware of every passing day — is the guild’s desire for a portion of revenues derived from the Internet. This is nothing new: for more than 50 years, writers have been entitled to a small cut of the studios’ profits from the reuse of our shows or movies; whenever something we created ends up in syndication or is sold on DVD, we receive royalties. But the studios refuse to apply the same rules to the Internet.

My show, “Lost,” has been streamed hundreds of millions of times since it was made available on ABC’s Web site. The downloads require the viewer to first watch an advertisement, from which the network obviously generates some income. The writers of the episodes get nothing. We’re also a hit on iTunes (where shows are sold for $1.99 each). Again, we get nothing.

If this strike lasts longer than three months, an entire season of television will end this December. No dramas. No comedies. No “Daily Show.” The strike will also prevent any pilots from being shot in the spring, so even if the strike is settled by then, you won’t see any new shows until the following January. As in 2009. Both the guild and the studios we are negotiating with do agree on one thing: this situation would be brutal.

I will probably be dragged through the streets and burned in effigy if fans have to wait another year for “Lost” to come back. And who could blame them? Public sentiment may have swung toward the guild for now, but once the viewing audience has spent a month or so subsisting on “America’s Next Hottest Cop” and “Celebrity Eating Contest,” I have little doubt that the tide will turn against us. Which brings me to the second stage of grief: anger.

I am angry because I am accused of being greedy by studios that are being greedy. I am angry because my greed is fair and reasonable: if money is made off of my product through the Internet, then I am entitled to a small piece. The studios’ greed, on the other hand, is hidden behind cynical, disingenuous claims that they make nothing on the Web — that the streaming and downloading of our shows is purely “promotional.” Seriously?

Most of all, I’m angry that I’m not working. Not working means not getting paid. My weekly salary is considerably more than the small percentage of Internet gains we are hoping to make in this negotiation and if I’m on the picket line for just three months, I will never recoup those losses, no matter what deal gets made.

But I am willing to hold firm for considerably longer than three months because this is a fight for the livelihoods of a future generation of writers, whose work will never “air,” but instead be streamed, beamed or zapped onto a tiny chip.

Things have gotten ugly and the lines of communication have broken down completely between the guild and the studios. Perhaps it’s not too late, though, for both sides to rally around the one thing we still have in common: our mourning for the way things used to be. Instead of fighting each other, maybe we should be throwing a wake for our beloved TV.

Because the third stage of grief is bargaining.

And bargain we must, because when television finally passes on, there will still be entertainment; there will still be shows and films and videos, right there on a screen in your living room. And just as the owners of vaudeville theaters broke down and bought hand-crank movie cameras, the studios will figure out a way to make absurd amounts of money off of whatever is beaming onto whichever sort of screen.

And we’ll still be writing every word."

Dean Winchester

11-12-2007, 04:26 PM

oh, so people who PAY FOR TIVO SUBSCRIPTIONS should pay to save shows? What a crock!!!! Does it dawn that people happen to have lives and jobs and things that might very well prevent them from being at home at 8 PM to watch their favorite show? If someone who is stuck in a fast food or retail job that keeps them until late loves Grey's Anatomy, why should he or she have to pay for the priviledge to watch the episode two hours later because they're stuck at work at 9? I used to work retail five/six years ago and I always had to record Buffy, Ally McBeal, Friends, Sex And The City and the sort because it was the only way I could watch the shows as I'd generally be forced to work on the nights they aired. I have a friend who has to go to work at 5 in the morning, he has to TIVO shows like Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, etc... because he needs a lot of sleep and will miss it if he stays up till 10 or 11 to watch a show when he needs to wake up at 3:30 AM. Why should he have to pay more to see a show than someone who can go to bed after midnight and is always at home between the hours of 8-11 PM?

friendsfan77

11-12-2007, 04:33 PM

oh, so people who PAY FOR TIVO SUBSCRIPTIONS should pay to save shows? What a crock!!!!
Yeah, I agree that this is honestly asking too much. The DVD thing I wound up understanding - I mean, the companies should be able to get the residuals they want without having to screw over the consumers by raising the costs. As for TiVo - folks already pay for the TiVo subscriptions. What more could they want? It's like wanting to charging people for taping shows off their VCRs, which people have done for years.

Mr. Television

11-12-2007, 04:33 PM

http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl-et-channel12nov12,0,5392672.story?coll=cl-calendar

Fox sees dollar signs in picket lines
With its strong roster of writer-free reality-TV shows such as 'American Idol,' a network exec says money it will save on salaries more than offsets any lost ad revenue.

By SCOTT COLLINS, CHANNEL ISLAND

STRIKING writers had a special message for Fox executives Friday morning.

An estimated 3,000 picketers massed outside Fox's Century City headquarters, where they were serenaded by guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, an anti-corporate, far-left band that has made a career of telling listeners how to stick it to the Man. One sign bore a doctored photo of Peter Chernin, president of Fox parent News Corp., extending his middle finger over the legend, "Write this!"

Writers Guild of America members have reason to be particularly steamed with Chernin. During a Wednesday earnings call with analysts, Rupert Murdoch's top lieutenant had the temerity to suggest that, far from being a fearsome prospect, the writers strike could be, like, a good thing for Fox. Other honchos, such as NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker, have downplayed the strike's effect. But they haven't matched Chernin for zesty optimism: Strike? Yes, please -- may I have another?

Calling the strike "probably a positive" for the company, Chernin added: "We save more money in term deals and, you know, story costs and probably the lack of making pilots than we lose in potential advertising."

As Jon Stewart would say, "Well-played, sir." Telling striking writers that the corporate balance sheet is better off without their salaries mucking everything up is what you might call negotiation by other means. (Grist for someone's interdisciplinary economics/lit dissertation: Try to calculate Shakespeare's "story costs.")

But here's the thing: Chernin's probably right. At least in the short term, News Corp. stands to benefit from the strike, largely because Fox is in a much better position than its rivals to weather the work stoppage.

Sure, a lot of the Fox advantage has to do with its ratings leviathan, the presumably strike-proof "American Idol," which the network announced last week would return with a super-sized four-hour premiere starting Jan. 15. (Fox also said it would postpone the seventh season of "24" indefinitely, although after last season's tumbling ratings and critically dissed storylines, that might not cause execs much pain.)

"Idol" is just the beginning, though. When you stack everything up, you begin to understand why Chernin and Murdoch are laughing amid the industry panic. And also why, despite all the claims of "Norma Rae"-like solidarity this week, the scribes might end up having to knuckle under for companies that are already practically mocking them. Rage against the machine, indeed.

"Fox does come out on top because of 'American Idol,' " said Jack Myers, a veteran media analyst and creator of the MediaVillage.com website. Longer-term effects might be harder to decipher, he added: "This strike could radically remake the industry."

When it comes to labor relations, the gods seem to smile on Murdoch. Or more likely, his characteristic brazenness nearly always serves him well in a crisis. In 1986, when unionized British printers tried to put the squeeze on him, Murdoch played hardball and switched to non-union workers in what one account dubbed "the biggest union-busting operation in history."

We all know that TV and film scriptwriting is a wholly different beast than feeding tabloid newsprint into a printing press. But industry vets with long memories will recall that Fox also found a way to benefit from the last Hollywood writers strike, back in 1988. (A News Corp. spokesman said Chernin would not elaborate beyond his remarks to analysts; Fox Broadcasting executives would not comment for the record.)

The Fox network, which had gone on the air less than two years earlier, was struggling prior to the '88 work stoppage. But the dropoff in fresh TV fare during the strike encouraged many viewers to check out repeats of Fox offerings such as the scabrous sitcom "Married . . . With Children." Just a few weeks after the strike started, the network debuted the crime-oriented reality show "America's Most Wanted," which has been a Fox staple ever since.

By the end of 1988, Jamie Kellner, then the chief of Fox Broadcasting, was crowing to the Los Angeles Times: "We believed from the beginning we would begin to break through, and it looks like we have."

In retrospect, the strike didn't have nearly as big an effect on Fox's long-term fortunes as, say, snagging a key NFL broadcast deal in 1993, which instantly put the network on equal footing with ABC, CBS and NBC. But the point is that Murdoch & Co. figured out a way to spin presumed strike-related losses into opportunistic gold.

That's what they're likely to do this time around too.

"Idol" has delivered the highest ratings in TV even when programmed four or more hours per week -- and there's no reason to expect its ratings to diminish this season. Au contraire -- a strike-afflicted schedule on other networks would probably push more viewers to the singing contest.

Also remember that Fox has to fill only 15 hours of prime time per week, as opposed to 22 hours for competitors (Fox's prime time ends at 10 p.m., one hour earlier than other networks).

As one Fox insider joked, "That makes it one-third easier" to fill strike-vacated programming slots.

Fox is already strong because it's led the last few seasons in the crucial 18-to-49 age demographic. It now has a lineup of midseason scripted series ready to go, led by "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," which is already stirring up considerable buzz. It has a potent weapon in reality guru Mike Darnell, who's proved adept at concocting ratings-grabbing (if not always legally advisable) unscripted fare, often on very short notice. And it has a talented new entertainment president in Kevin Reilly, the former top NBC programmer, who could conceivably leverage Fox's financial clout into a flurry of post-strike deals with the town's top writing talent.

And if the strike lasts longer than even pessimists predict? Well, the whole point of vertical integration over the last decade is that it's made these media conglomerates diversified. News Corp., as Murdoch likes to point out, isn't just about Fox. The company owns MySpace. It controls newspapers and satellite operations around the world. Soon it will own the Wall Street Journal.

Writers would do well to remember all this as they walk the picket lines, and showrunners -- the hyphenate writer-producers stuck in the middle of all this -- fret over the fate of their shows. There are already rumblings that the strike may mean curtains for certain underperforming but critically beloved series, most notably NBC's "Friday Night Lights."

Thus, it'll be interesting to see how many showrunners, some of whom signed a two-page screenwriters ad in Variety last week promising a united front, may be glimpsed tiptoeing past picket lines this week.

It's not Chernin's fault -- well, not entirely, anyway -- that the writers are facing this unappetizing dilemma, one that Rage Against the Machine somehow never put to music: Their show or their union?

Times staff writer Lorenza Muñoz contributed reporting to this column.

Buffyboy323

11-12-2007, 05:00 PM

Dean Winchester

11-12-2007, 05:14 PM

Damon's not saying writers want money for Tivo...He said "the rectangular screen in your living room won’t really be a television anymore, it’ll be a computer. And running into the back of that computer, the wire that delivers unto you everything you watch? It won’t be cable; it will be the Internet."

The internet is apparently the biggest issue. The writers' work is being downloaded every single day, and they aren't getting a single cent for it...Greedy studios!
well, I agree downloading off torrent sites is wrong, but I don't think ABC or CBS streaming the episodes for a few days afterwards is wrong. It's so hard to comprehend that people can't and won't schedule their lives around what time CSI: Miami comes on. I don't think watching a TV show three days after it airs is any different than going to music.aol.com and streaming the latest albums that just came out. Much like downloading music is wrong (although I'm guilty of doing it), the same applies with TV shows. Plus, ABC, NBC and CBS will not allow you to download the shows, just stream it online. So it's not like people are making bootleg DVD's of what they're watching on the net.

I just don't see anything wrong with streaming shows for a week after it airs for those who happened to either be at work, or out, or asleep, or whatever during the original airing. HBO has been doing the On Demand thing for years now where you can watch entire seasons of shows and catch up.

Buffyboy323

11-12-2007, 05:56 PM

well, I agree downloading off torrent sites is wrong, but I don't think ABC or CBS streaming the episodes for a few days afterwards is wrong.

It is wrong. If money is made off of a writer's product through the Internet, then they absolutely should be getting paid for that.

It's so hard to comprehend that people can't and won't schedule their lives around what time CSI: Miami comes on. I don't think watching a TV show three days after it airs is any different than going to music.aol.com and streaming the latest albums that just came out. Much like downloading music is wrong (although I'm guilty of doing it), the same applies with TV shows. Plus, ABC, NBC and CBS will not allow you to download the shows, just stream it online. So it's not like people are making bootleg DVD's of what they're watching on the net.

I just don't see anything wrong with streaming shows for a week after it airs for those who happened to either be at work, or out, or asleep, or whatever during the original airing.

It seems like your talking more about the viewers here. I agree, there's nothing wrong with watching shows after they air (that's how I watch almost ALL my shows), but when viewers are watching their shows on network/studio websites, those studios are making money off of it - and so should the writer's.

Dean Winchester

11-12-2007, 06:06 PM

It is wrong. If money is made off of a writer's product through the Internet, then they absolutely should be getting paid for that.

It seems like your talking more about the viewers here. I agree, there's nothing wrong with watching shows after they air (that's how I watch almost ALL my shows), but when viewers are watching their shows on network/studio websites, those studios are making money off of it - and so should the writer's.

well, if ABC is making money off a streaming, than I think the writers should make something too.... but I don't think suddenly you should be forced to pay $1.99 or something to stream the previous night's Ugly Betty episode because work or something else prevented you from seeing it. Why should someone who is home at 8 pm on Thursday night watch UB for free but someone who either has to work on Thursday night (the networks forget that there are people who work evenings) and won't get to watch it until Friday afternoon should pay $2? I don't think it's right or fair.

Well, I am speaking about the viewers because we're the ones getting screwed out of a season of episodes when the writers could've done it over the summer.

Dean Winchester

11-12-2007, 10:14 PM

speaking of the strike, I am surprised that the writers didn't try to crank out as many episodes as possible before the deadline. It's not the same thing, but Roseanne season 6 comes to mind. The writers and producers knew that Laurie Metcalf would have a baby in midseason and would have to go on maternity leave so they cranked out about 18 or 19 episodes BEFORE she gave birth in November, then took a few months off (since Laurie was too valuable to the show to do episodes without her) and resumed a few months later when she came back from maternity leave. I think they should've followed this strategy with most TV shows since people knew a strike was coming instead of leaving shows in mid-air with 10-12 shows in the can for the most part.

Mr. Television

11-12-2007, 10:58 PM

Buffyboy323

11-12-2007, 11:58 PM

I think they probably wanted to disrupt the season. If all the shows had most of their episodes filmed nobody would care about the strike until after the season was over.
Exactly! The Writer's Guild knew what the were doing. Putting down their pens just as the middle of the season was under way was a smart thing to do on their part. November, one of the most important months for television each year would be the wake up call the studios needed.

The studios might not be feeling it now (since there's still a bunch of shows airing new episodes), but come February sweeps, a lot of networks will be out of scripted shows.

Mr. Television

11-13-2007, 12:08 AM

Exactly! The Writer's Guild knew what the were doing. Putting down their pens just as the middle of the season was under way was a smart thing to do on their part. November, one of the most important months for television each year would be the wake up call the studios needed.

The studios might not be feeling it now (since there's still a bunch of shows airing new episodes), but come February sweeps, a lot of networks will be out of scripted shows.
I really don't think they care. Fox actually seems to be glad the strike's going on. I'd be shocked if the strike was settled before next spring at the earliest and it could go into next summer. I think the tv season's over. Heroes has filmed their final show as a season final and PD and Men In Trees are getting ready to do the same. This is going to be a long strike. The two sides hate each other. It reminds me of the baseball strike of 1994. The players struck about the time the playoffs were getting ready to start thinking that the owners would cave. Instead the owners canceled the playoffs and WS.

noveel

11-13-2007, 01:25 AM

According to the networks, people watch less in the summer. Cable Networks make their money off of subscriber fees from the cable companies. That's why the networks air reruns in the summer.

Mr. Television

11-13-2007, 12:02 PM

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/columns/tv_reporter/e3i5eca1b5094193b554ce9b3995227866c

Strike rewrites rules, jams up showrunners

By Nellie Andreeva

Nov 12, 2007

Last Monday morning, production on Fox's high-profile drama pilot "The Oaks" began in Pasadena. It was a big day for playwright-turned-TV scribe David Schulner; "Oaks" is his first pilot. But he, along with showrunner Shawn Ryan, were nowhere near the set that morning. Instead, they were on the picket line, because as of 12:01 a.m. that day, they were on strike.

"Oaks" is one of about two dozen pilots greenlighted by the broadcast networks, a far cry from the 100 or so produced by the five broadcast networks every year. And, with less than a quarter of the drama and just a fraction of the comedy pilot scripts in, that could be about it for this cycle if the writers strike lasts for months.

"One good thing that might come out of a strike ... it would give us an excuse to shake things up," Fox's Kevin Reilly said last month, referring to the archaic development model that cramps the production of all pilots within three months.

NBC already is shaking things up. It is teaming with producing companies outside the studio system, such as Lionsgate and U.K.'s Power, handing them 13-episode production orders and international rights in exchange for high-end drama product for a fraction of the cost. While this is a business model developed to provide year-round original programming, its implementation certainly was spurred by the strike.

The deal with Power for "Robinson Crusoe" is particularly significant as it marks the first time in 45 years that a British company has produced a scripted series for a U.S. broadcast network.

Just like the dollar has been sliding against the euro, U.S. studios and talent have been losing ground to Europeans, and strikes by the Hollywood guilds can only accelerate that.

The new drama series this year are dominated by British actors. Branches of such European companies as FremantleMedia, BBC Worldwide, Endemol and RDF already rule reality broadcast programming; now they're entering the scripted arena.

While "Crusoe" will be developed by an American writer, such British-produced series probably would employ more U.K. writers than a normal U.S. show would. And the longer a strike goes on, the more such arrangements with oversees producers could pop up as the networks start hurting for original scripted programming.

Getting British writers to pen U.S. comedy series would be tougher, as humor is the hardest to translate. But the networks might already have another solution in case the writers strike continues. "There are some great kids at USC," a top network executive told me recently.

Meanwhile, the writers are struggling to get their message across. They are perceived as white-collar millionaires (which is true for a fraction of them). While grocery store workers picket in front of supermarkets -- a relatable place that people go to all the time -- writers march at studio lots. Maybe writers should go to people's homes and stand in front of their TVs. But even then, many people wouldn't notice them since they don't watch TV shows on TV, which is one point of the strike.

That brings us back to the past week, which has been especially heart-wrenching for the hyphenates who were torn among their allegiance to the guild, their commitment and love for their shows and their contractual obligation to their employers. Such creator-showrunners as Shonda Rhimes and Greg Daniels got up at the crack of dawn to sabotage their own shows to help bring the strike to an end. Ryan had to miss the filming of the final episode of his signature show, "The Shield." No writer should have to do that.

As for Schulner, if he gets the itch to write in between picket shifts, he could go back to playwriting. And if he decides to pen one about the strike, he can borrow the title of one of his old plays: "An Infinite Ache

Mr. Television

11-13-2007, 12:04 PM

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jxfWGkNLj52mGYQMb6ThjrY05XggD8SSD8180

Advertisers Leery of TV Strike Fallout
By SETH SUTEL

NEW YORK (AP) — As the Hollywood writers strike enters a second week, advertisers are worrying it could seriously disrupt the TV schedule — and the number of eyeballs viewing their ads — in coming months.

So far, the strike has forced only late-night talk and comedy shows into reruns, since their material must be freshly scripted every day.

But when marquee shows like "The Office," "Desperate Housewives" and "24" halted production, the supply of ready-to-air prime-time hits came under threat — and that has been unsettling to advertisers.

For the moment, the bulk of the TV schedule is intact. And ad buyers aren't worried about losing money because their contracts guarantee total audience counts, which the networks will make up with more airtime if ratings drop.

The real worry is what effect a prolonged strike could have on future TV show development and on audience loyalty to big-name shows, particularly as viewers face more and more choices for watching video — streamed over the Internet, uploaded to a media player or on cable channels.

"This could become a watershed moment," said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media, a major advertising buying and planning agency. "There's a lot of opportunities that consumers have with digital media, and advertising dollars are going to follow the eyeballs."

In fact, consumers' opportunities are at the heart of the current labor dispute. Writers want a share of future revenue from new media video channels such as streaming over the Web, but networks are balking. They say it's too early to tell what that business looks like.

In 1988, the last time Hollywood and television writers went on strike, Adgate said, cable was a weaker force, with the average home having just 28 channels and just 55 percent of U.S. households subscribing. Today, about 85 percent of households have cable.

Heather Goodchild, media analyst at the Standard & Poor's credit rating agency, said in a report last week that the networks' prime programs "could lose momentum and, potentially, audience interest if they are replaced by ad hoc, filler programming."

And that could outweigh the benefit of the lower cost of producing the replacement programming, such as reality shows.

Chris Caldwell, a media buyer at the Houston-based agency Briggs & Caldwell, said if an extended strike does significantly affect network programming, his agency will look more closely at other choices for placing television advertising.

"If this thing continues, we're going to spend our TV money more wisely," says Caldwell, "and move the money to programs that aren't being affected by the writers strike, like news-based programs, reality-based programs and game shows."

For the time being, many advertisers are just watching and waiting. Mark Wright, who heads advertising buying for Anheuser-Busch Inc. in United States, said last week it was "too early" to say how, if at all, Budweiser's plans might change. But he noted that much of the company's ad spending was in sports programming, which wouldn't be affected.

"If there are no original scripted dramas on the air," Wright added, however, "we would have some decisions to make."

Ryndee Carney, manager of advertising and marketing communications for General Motors Corp., said it was status quo for the moment. If there are changes to the programming lineup, then GM would review its plans, she said, but she declined to elaborate.

Some networks will feel the strike's effects more than others. For Fox, which has relatively few scripted dramas — and a ratings juggernaut in "American Idol" — the strike could be positive, the chief operating officer for Fox parent company News Corp. said last week. Peter Chernin said on a conference call that the strike may cut the cost of making pilots and producing programming.

In the days leading up to the strike, several other broadcast executives also said they didn't expect to see an immediate financial impact and assured investors they had ample programming in their pipelines.

Rino Scanzoni, chairman of Mediaedge:cia, an advertising buying and planning agency, says the long-term concern about the strike "is a grave one," because development of new network shows gets under way in earnest in early winter.

Late-night talk shows are being forced into reruns at a crucial time for ratings. November is one of four periods in the year called "sweeps" in the television business, when ratings are used as a benchmark to set future ad rates. Lower viewership now will mean lower rates later.

Official viewership ratings for last week haven't come out yet so it's hard to pinpoint the impact even on the late-night shows. But Shari Anne Brill, director of programming at Carat, a major advertising-buying company, said her preliminary calculations based on local household ratings show declines of some 8 percent in late-night talk shows.

In addition to concerns about shows living up to agreements, advertisers are unhappy at the prospect of reality shows — or other substitute programming that doesn't rely on writers — taking the place of the high-profile scripted dramas and comedies they paid top dollar for.

"With the exception of 'American Idol,' it's really the scripted series that carry the networks, so their disappearance will really hurt," said Brill. "Now that the pipeline for some of the better shows has dried up, it's a problem."

Mr. Television

11-13-2007, 12:20 PM

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_SEoXqpRgyb1lkZqglEgEBJAg8wD8SSD14G0

Writers Take Kids to Picket Lines
By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON

BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Picketing was hard work for hundreds of protesters who got cranky and needed naps Monday, so they put down their hand-scribbled signs and made their parents take them home.

Striking Hollywood writers toted their kids to picket lines outside studios to teach them lessons about residuals and payments for shows offered on the Internet.

The issues in the weeklong labor dispute between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were clear for 11-year-old Joey Shapiro.

"I'm all for my dad," he said outside the Walt Disney Studios.

Joey's father, movie writer Alan Shapiro, said he wanted his two sons to experience the strike.

"It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing — I hope," he said.

Parents took advantage of the Veterans Day school holiday to take about 100 kids to the Disney protest. Most of the youngsters obviously had a little coaching.

One thumb-sucking preschooler held a sign reading, "I'm learning to share. Can you? Play nice."

John Aboud brought his 3-year-old daughter, Penelope, to show her the studio that made her favorite movie, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

"She brought a little toy rat because I told her we were going to Mickey Mouse's house," said Aboud, who is blogging about the strike and has several TV projects in development.

Penelope made her own picket sign — unintelligible scribbles in green marker.

Many of the kids were excited to join their parents for some family time.

Elijah Newman, 7, "has been dying to strike all week," said his mother, Melissa Carter, a movie writer who lives nearby.

The boy was thrilled when he waved — and passing trucks honked in response. He also enjoyed the endless supply of doughnuts and cookies brought by strike supporters.

Strike T-shirts were hot commodities, with parents snatching them up for their kids.

"The funny thing is, after all this is over, we won't want to wear them," Carter said.

Buffyboy323

11-13-2007, 07:45 PM

well, if ABC is making money off a streaming, than I think the writers should make something too.... but I don't think suddenly you should be forced to pay $1.99 or something to stream the previous night's Ugly Betty episode because work or something else prevented you from seeing it. Why should someone who is home at 8 pm on Thursday night watch UB for free but someone who either has to work on Thursday night (the networks forget that there are people who work evenings) and won't get to watch it until Friday afternoon should pay $2? I don't think it's right or fair.

Well, I am speaking about the viewers because we're the ones getting screwed out of a season of episodes when the writers could've done it over the summer.
For those who aren't home for Ugly Betty on Thursdays, and don't want to pay for it on ABC's website the next day should Tivo it or pop in a VHS tape...They would be able to watch it FREE if the greedy studios would pay their writer's for their own work.

It does suck that our shows have been stopped for a while, but I bet it sucks even more for the writer's who could lose their credit cards, houses, cars, etc.

Mr. Television

11-15-2007, 01:14 PM

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/artslife/story.html?id=a84c19f2-7744-47d1-809c-381a568232be

Strike Some, Lose Some
Woe Is TV, Day 11
Alex Strachan, CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, November 15, 2007
Is this the end of "free" TV? That's the billion dollar question everyone is afraid to ask, and no one can answer.

By now, one thing is clear in the on-going Hollywood writers' strike. Rumours of a short strike were exaggerated. With neither side talking and no talks planned, behind-the-scenes predictions of a nine-month shutdown look entirely likely.

The short-term effects of the strike are already clear. The late-night talk shows are in reruns, proving that, as witty and worldly as they pretend to be, Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and the like are not the same without the faceless, nameless writers who pen quips for them.

Beyond that, new episodes of most of TV's top-rated comedies and dramas continue to air for the time being. As most recurring series air reruns over the Christmas and New Year's break, viewers are unlikely to notice any real difference until mid-January, when they usually expect to see new episodes of their favourite shows, as well as the resumption of midseason hits like 24, Lost and The New Adventures of Old Christine.

The new year will instead see the return of American Idol, a celebrity edition of The Apprentice, and that's it. Reality TV, game shows and a new slate of midseason programs from CBC will fill the TV bill.

Specialty channels will carry on as usual, though. Some of TV's finest dramas, such as The Wire, Dexter and Brotherhood, will air uninterrupted on pay-TV channels The Movie Network and Movie Central because these programs hail from HBO and Showtime, which plan their seasons up to a year in advance. The strike will catch up to these programs eventually, but not for many months.

That's important to know, because when enough viewers tire of pale imitations of American Idol and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, they will turn to the specialty channels in increasing numbers. And, this time, they might not return to the broadcast networks once the strike is settled.

The catch is that pay-TV and specialty channels cost money, whereas traditional network TV is free-- the cable bill aside.

A prolonged strike could herald a tectonic shift in TV's business model. The cumulative audience for the broadcast networks in the U.S. was already down 8% from last year, according to some published estimates -- and that was before the strike. A lengthy dispute will only hasten the defection away from broadcast TV.

And that has serious ramifications for the way TV programs are made and seen. With rare exceptions -- a big hockey game, a major breaking-news event -- broadcast networks are still the only outlet capable of drawing a mass audience, loosely defined as three million viewers in Canada and 25 million in the U.S.

It's that mass audience, and the advertising revenue that audience generates, that drives the studio business model, in which some 40 new dramas and comedies debut every fall. Of those, at least 30 will fail, despite carrying price tags of $2-to $3-million an episode.

The major media companies that own the networks aren't as concerned as some of their detractors might like to think, because they also own the specialty channels.

The writers' strike is essentially about money, as all labour disputes are.

The viewer ends up paying, though, if the outcome is a shrinking network audience and more specialty channels.

Why are the two sides in the dispute so intractable when so much is at stake? That's the billion dollar question.

Mr. Television

11-15-2007, 01:56 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/arts/television/15life.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

TV Shows See Strike as a Second Chance
By BILL CARTER
Published: November 15, 2007
In the television business the grim reality of the writers’ strike has set in, with the prospect of a long shutdown of scripted shows growing stronger by the day.

But in what seems to be growing consensus among executives at the television networks, the strike could contain a faint glimmer of good news for one group of shows: struggling, barely surviving prime-time series.

“The strike definitely could be a good thing for some marginal shows,” said Preston Beckman, the executive in charge of scheduling for the Fox network. That theory was seconded by executives at the other networks and at several studios, most of whom asked for and were granted anonymity because of a code of silence about strike issues that is in place at the big production companies.

Very soon the networks will begin running low on original scripted episodes of shows. Any new episode will become an increasingly valuable commodity. No network is going to waste bought-and-paid-for episodes. So the marginal shows will stay on until their episodes run out, which, in most cases, will mean sometime between now and the end of January.

The executives pointed to specific shows that might have been facing cancellation or at least trips to the hiatus shelf in previous television seasons. Now, thanks to the strike, these shows will surely get to run their full complement of episodes — and perhaps win a shot at coming back next year.

In this group are first-season series like “Journeyman” and “Life” on NBC, “K-ville” and “Back to You” on Fox, “Big Shots” and “Carpoolers” on ABC and “Cane” on CBS.

Some holdover shows may also be affected for the better. Those possibilities include “Friday Night Lights” on NBC, “Men in Trees” on ABC, “’Til Death” on Fox and “Shark” on CBS.

In other seasons some shows like these, which have teetered on the ratings fence, might have been temporarily shelved or yanked off the air. Now, as Mr. Beckman noted, “they’re just going to be allowed to play out.” And as another senior network program executive put it, “We’re going to get a little extra look at some of these shows, and maybe they’ll help themselves.”

A show like “Friday Night Lights,” for instance, with its high critical praise and low ratings, could get a chance to break through in January, when it is likely to be among the few fall series with some new episodes left; the show started production early and managed to complete 15 episodes before the strike.

In general shows with self-contained stories may be deemed more viable because they have a better chance to do well in repeats. CBS’s schedule has so many crime dramas that repeat well, like “CSI” and “NCIS,” that it may be better off during the strike than its competitors.

ABC’s regular lineup meanwhile is dominated by serialized shows like “Desperate Housewives” that do not repeat well. But that could benefit the one new crime drama ABC owns, “Women’s Murder Club.” ABC could move that show off Friday, where its ratings have been marginal (it has a tryout tonight at 10), and see different results because most viewers haven’t seen the episodes in first run.

In January the series that had been held in reserve will get their shots on the air, usually in limited runs. These include shows like “Lost” and “Cashmere Mafia” on ABC, “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” on Fox and “Jericho” on CBS. And some of these shows could do better than they would have otherwise, because by the time they get on, they would not have to face original episodes of shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “House.”

Instead they will be facing either repeats or substitute programming like newsmagazines or reality shows. They could benefit from the weakened competition, or from being placed adjacent to hit reality shows like “American Idol” on Fox and “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC, leading them to stand out even more. For just this reason Fox is planning to insert episodes of “Back to You” after “Idol” in March.

“Some of these shows might do much better than they would have without the strike,” one senior network executive said.

Several network executives pointed out that the downside of the strike is still far greater than any tiny upside. As some marginal shows find a hope for new life, some incipient hit shows could see their early hopes squashed. New shows that have been building momentum, like “Samantha Who?” on ABC, “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS and “Chuck” on NBC, could get forgotten over months off the air while the audience moves on to other entertainment choices.

The biggest challenge for programmers may come if the strike continues long into the new year. Then development for next year’s shows will be severely affected because pilots for a new fall season may never get made.

Many drama scripts have already been turned in, but those almost always get worked on many more times before a pilot is commissioned. Comedies, few of which are ordered this early, are even more works in constant progress, so the strike could mean few or no new comedy pilots will get into finished shape.

That would leave networks in the position of having to put together a future lineup based on whatever spare parts seem to work this winter and a lot of shows that have not produced new episodes in a long time. Again, the result could be consideration for shows that otherwise might have looked replaceable.

“We may renew some series just because we know what we have with them, and we have no idea what else we’ll have,” one network executive said. “If we thought the show was being well produced and showed at least some promise, my guess is we would bring it back.”

Dean Winchester

11-15-2007, 04:39 PM

I decided I am quitting the tv season cold turkey and I'll just wait until this upcoming summer when everything comes out on DVD. I know I'm setting myself up for disappointment since every show will wind up having a disappointing and unintended "season finale" that I think I'd rather wait until I know another full season is about to start to finish the rest.

The only exception to the rule is One Tree Hill, it's coming back as a midseason replacement on CW in January but they have 13 episodes in the can. 13 episodes is a typical midseason order, so I figure it'll be enough to suffice, even tho there were supposed to be 22 episodes, and plus, OTH is a show that needs all the help it can get so it'll get a series finale.

Good thing Curb Your Enthusiasm and South Park don't oblige to typical "seasons" so they both wrapped this week, even tho they ran their typical seasons and were going to end now anyways.

JulieSomoski

11-15-2007, 04:49 PM

I really hope shows like BBT aren't forgotten by the end of this strike. It was building so momentum in it's last few weeks, and now because of this trike, it's gonna hurt.

Mr. Television

11-16-2007, 12:09 PM

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119517956267095213.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Splits Emerge Among
Key Backers of Striking Writers
By SAM SCHECHNER and REBECCA DANA
November 16, 2007

Since the Writers Guild of America went on strike nearly two weeks ago, an important bloc of support has come from an elite group of television writers -- those with some of the biggest paychecks. But divisions have begun to emerge within this core.

These writers, called "showrunners" because they're also producers responsible for running their TV shows, have taken to picket lines and generally refused to participate in shooting or editing episodes of their series. But TV studios are sending showrunners breach-of-contract letters, and many showrunners are anxious about the fates of their series. So some are returning to perform some of their producing -- but not writing -- duties.

One of the most high-profile to return to producing is Carlton Cuse, a member of the WGA's negotiating committee who is a showrunner and writer for ABC's "Lost." He plans to do some postproduction for the eight episodes of "Lost" that have been shot, he says. "We feel we owe that to our fans," he says. "We would harm our franchise if we didn't do it ourselves."

Mr. Cuse's position highlights the awkward position many showrunners are in as the strike is poised to stretch into a third week. Unlike the vast majority of writers, showrunners must balance fealty to their cause with other priorities, including loyalty to nonwriting staffers on their shows who will soon be laid off, and the desire to retain creative control of their own work. How they resolve their competing loyalties could be a factor in how and when the strike ends.

In 1988, the last time the WGA went on strike, a large number of showrunners began to waver in their support of the strike after about five months, according to Brian Walton, who was the WGA's executive director and chief negotiator at the time. "They started to say, 'Look, this looks really bad. Is there some way we could go back and take that last offer?' " he recalls. The strike was resolved soon thereafter.

This time, showrunners hadn't initially planned to stop producing in the event of a strike. The WGA's strike rule No. 12 prohibits writers from providing "writing services," such as "minor adjustments" to a script before and during production. The guild says it doesn't interpret that rule to prohibit postproduction editing that doesn't alter the script, but it has made a "moral appeal" for showrunners to support the strike in any way they can, says Jeff Hermanson, assistant executive director of the WGA West.

"There's been a real difference of opinion" about whether writers should act as producers during the strike, says Mr. Cuse of "Lost." "I'm in the moderate camp. I strongly believe that each showrunner should make a decision based on his own conscience and circumstance."

Many showrunners' decisions to stop producing grew out of a meeting of more than 80 showrunners on the Saturday before the strike began, according to guild representatives and three showrunners who were there. Steve Levitan, creator of Fox's "Back to You," helped run the meeting and has become an unofficial organizer of a loose group dubbed "United Showrunners," a name that has since been embroidered on baseball caps distributed at showrunner pickets.

Meanwhile, TV studios have been applying pressure to showrunners. Several, including CBS Paramount Network Television, a unit of CBS Corp., have sent "breach of contract" letters to showrunners. Twentieth Century Fox Television, a division of News Corp., has sent letters suspending the lucrative production deals of at least some showrunners who haven't showed up to work. Marc Graboff, co-chairman of General Electric Co.'s NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, sent a memo to showrunners and producers before the strike in the form of a list of frequently asked questions. The memo, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, says that anyone with producing duties must fulfill them, and includes the group of writing tasks prohibited by WGA's strike rule No. 12. The memo also says showrunners are prohibited from turning in scripts to the union -- something that WGA strike rule No. 8 says they are obliged to do -- because the scripts are company property.

Last week, as pressure mounted, a large group of showrunners gathered at a lunch organized by United Showrunners engaged in a spirited, three-hour debate about whether to return to producing. Some there decided they'd return to producing tasks permitted under the strike if the studios and WGA restarted good-faith negotiations. "We wanted to offer a carrot," Mr. Levitan says. "We want to go back and do our shows." Next on the calendar: a social gathering in Los Angeles early next week, intended to boost showrunner morale.

Mr. Levitan acknowledges that some showrunners have returned to producing even though no negotiations have been scheduled. "This is not a binding organization," he says.

Nevertheless, many showrunners are still doing no production work, according to showrunners and people at studios. Mark Gordon, whose production company works with Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Studios to make ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice," CBS's "Criminal Minds" and the CW's "Reaper," says his non-writing producers are finishing up shooting and postproduction of his shows without the help of showrunners.

"It's the first time I've had my own show on TV," says Michele Fazekas, co-creator of "Reaper," a freshman series that hasn't yet been ordered for a full season. "I'm potentially sacrificing that."

friendsfan77

11-16-2007, 03:24 PM

I really hope shows like BBT aren't forgotten by the end of this strike. It was building so momentum in it's last few weeks, and now because of this trike, it's gonna hurt.
I have to admit, I wasn't real impressed with the first few episodes of the show, but I think in the past couple weeks, it's gotten better.

JulieSomoski

11-16-2007, 04:50 PM

I have to admit, I wasn't real impressed with the first few episodes of the show, but I think in the past couple weeks, it's gotten better.

It has growing a lot over these past months. It's too bad this nonsense strike will most likely kill it.

Buffyboy323

11-16-2007, 07:20 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1635179420071116?feedType=RSS&feedName=entertainmentNews

Studio suspends "Office," "30 Rock" actors
Fri Nov 16, 2007 3:17am EST

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As the writers strike nears the end of its second week with no resolution in sight, the most dreaded phrase in Hollywood is making the rounds: force majeure.

Producer Universal Media Studios on Thursday began notifying the regulars on NBC's "Bionic Woman," "The Office" and "30 Rock" that the studio is suspending them on half-pay for five weeks, citing the force majeure provisions in their Screen Actors Guild (SAG) contracts.

While deals with actors allow for the force majeure -- or "greater force" -- option right after production is suspended, such a contract clause could be invoked for writers very soon if the strike continues. Most writers' production deals trigger the termination clause four to six weeks into a stoppage, but in some, the cushion is said to be only two weeks.

That means that as of Monday, studios could start terminating their overall pacts with writers.

Since the beginning of the strike on November 5, TV studios have been debating how to deal with series regulars -- whether to invoke the force majeure clause that allows them to terminate actors for unanticipated or uncontrollable reasons put them on hiatus or do something else.

On Friday, Sony Pictures TV took a different tack, notifying the regulars on two of the sitcoms it produces-- Fox's "'Til Death" and CBS' "Rules of Engagement" -- that they are being put on unpaid hiatus, remaining exclusive to the studio.

That move didn't sit well with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), which represents the two shows, or with SAG.

Both unions called putting actors on unpaid hiatus a violation of the SAG-AFTRA joint TV contract, which expires June 30, and vowed to take action against it.

According to SAG's interpretation of Section 61 of its collective bargaining agreement, the studios have three options in case of a strike: put series regulars on hold at full salary, suspend them for a period of up to five weeks at half-pay or terminate them.

If, like Universal, the studios opt for suspension, the performers themselves, according to SAG, can terminate their deals at the end of the five-week period. If they don't do that, the studios can choose to keep the regulars with full pay or end their deals.

Upon termination, actors are no longer paid and are free to do other projects. When production on the shows resumes, they are guaranteed to be rehired by the studios under the original terms of their deals.

The actors have to make an effort to accommodate the series, but their new projects are in first position. That would work well for in-demand-actors like "The Office" star Steve Carell, who can go off to do a movie without having to worry that an end of the strike would cut short his shoot.

During hiatus, however, actors must drop whatever they might be doing and report to their series immediately if those shows resume.

At least two other TV studios have been toying with the idea of putting actors on hiatus, but none has triggered that option since SAG and AFTRA's stern reaction to Sony's letters.

Meanwhile, a letter sent earlier this week to employees by Warner Bros. TV, was making the rounds Thursday. It estimates that, if the writers strike continues, all of its series -- which include "ER," "Without A Trace," "Cold Case" and the promising rookie "Pushing Daisies" -- will shut down in the next six to seven weeks, possibly leading to a loss of jobs.

"We currently anticipate that such layoffs, if they occur, will be temporary and that many employees will be recalled to work at some point after the WGA work stoppage ends," wrote Hank Lachmund, the studio's senior vp labor relations.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Buffyboy323

11-16-2007, 09:25 PM

This last article that I posted kind of sounds like a scare tactic to me - to get the writers to stop striking. A stupid move though, if you ask me.

But anyway, it doesn't worry me too much. I figure most people (especially those on the Office) will want to go back to their shows...With The Office, even if there's bad blood with the studios, hopefully they will feel a loyalty to the writers and other actors on the show. I personally could never not come back to a show that wouldn't be the same without me (Rainn Wilson or Steve Carell for example). Besides, several of The Office cast members are writers and producers on the show.

Brent88

11-17-2007, 12:59 AM

party:

URGENT NEWS! BOTH SIDES AGREE TO GO BACK INTO TALKS POST-THANKSGIVING

The date they return to the bargaining table is November 26th. I picked up rumors about this starting about two hours ago, and I've just confirmed it from a WGA source. Now the Writers Guild of America has just issued a statement: "Leaders from the WGA and the AMPTP have mutually agreed to resume formal negotiations on November 26. No other details or press statements will be issued." The exact same statement was just issued moments later by the Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers.

Is this the BEST news ever?!

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/both-sides-agree-post-thanksgiving-talks/

EmoJoe

11-17-2007, 01:02 AM

..hopefully these go better then the last ones! i'd be super happy if this happened, then none of my shows would really get effected.

Superbowl

11-17-2007, 01:11 AM

Let's hope and pray for a resolution.

Mr. Television

11-17-2007, 01:14 AM

If they want to save the season, they're going to have to come to an agreement fast. At least they're talking.

Scoobiedoo30

11-17-2007, 01:19 AM

I pray everynight that they Resolution this Matter

Brent88

11-17-2007, 01:29 AM

If they want to save the season, they're going to have to come to an agreement fast. At least they're talking.

As long as they come to an agreement by January, the season can be saved I think.

Mr. Television

11-17-2007, 02:00 AM

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-writers17nov17,0,4389766.story?coll=la-home-center

Writers, studios to resume talks, sources say

By Richard Verrier and Meg James, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
7:15 PM PST, November 16, 2007

Hollywood's film and TV writers and major studios have agreed to go back to the negotiating table on Nov. 26 in hopes of ending a bruising strike that began two weeks ago, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Writers, however, haven't agreed to put down their picket signs. They will continue to strike as planned next week.

Although the talks are a positive sign, the two sides have huge hurdles to overcome to reach a new contract to replace one that expired Oct. 31.

The sides have clashed mainly over how writers should be paid when their work is distributed via the Internet, cellphones and other new-media devices.

Buffyboy323

11-17-2007, 03:27 AM

URGENT NEWS! BOTH SIDES AGREE TO GO BACK INTO TALKS POST-THANKSGIVING

Is this the BEST news ever?!
I know one of things I might be thankful for this Thanksgiving... ;)

Buffyboy323

11-17-2007, 03:31 AM

As long as they come to an agreement by January, the season can be saved I think.
I hope so. Even if there needs to be episode cuts on a lot of shows, it's still better to get 18 episodes, rather than the 9 or 10 we'll get if this strike continues.

Superbowl

11-17-2007, 10:52 AM

My feeling is that this is the last chance to save the rest of the TV season. If both sides run away from the negotiating table calling each other ugly again than the whole rest of the season is blown up. Let's hope and pray for an agreement.

Mr. Television

11-17-2007, 11:48 AM

Mr. Television

11-17-2007, 12:08 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1642232020071117

Hollywood writers strike claims first film casualty
Sat Nov 17, 2007 2:36am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -

In the first big-screen casualty of the Hollywood writers strike, Columbia Pictures said on Friday it had postponed production on "Angels & Demons," a prequel to its box-office hit "The Da Vinci Code" starring Tom Hanks.

The Sony Corp.-owned film distributor also said the planned release date for the Ron Howard-directed religious thriller, originally set to open during the 2008 holiday season, has been pushed back to 2009.

"With the strike nearing its third week, Columbia Pictures has postponed production of 'Angels & Demons'," the studio said in a statement, adding that the script by Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldman needed further work.

Goldman, a member of the Writers Guild of America, is barred by the WGA's strike rules from editing or polishing scripts for the duration of the walkout.

In addition to his work on "Da Vinci Code," Goldman's writing credits include boxing drama "Cinderella Man" and "A Beautiful Mind," for which he won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.

"While the filmmakers and the studio feel the screenplay is very strong, we do not believe it is the fully realized production draft required of this ambitious project," Columbia said. "At this time, there is no new start date, but we are setting a release date of May 15, 2009."

The Writers Guild went on strike against major film and TV studios on November 5 after negotiations on a new contract for its 12,000 members reached an impasse in a dispute over higher fees the union is seeking from Internet revenues.

The strike immediately threw the television industry into disarray, as work on numerous late-night talk shows and prime-time comedies and dramas ground to a halt.

HANKS SIGNS ON FOR PREQUEL

"Angels & Demons" marks the first major Hollywood film set for release in 2008 to be delayed by the walkout.

Columbia said it did not expect the strike to affect any other film in its 2008 slate, which also includes the next James Bond film, a Will Smith action drama titled "Hancock" or the Adam Sandler comedy "You Don't mess with Zohan."

"Angels & Demons" is being adapted from the bestselling book of the same name by author Dan Brown.

Published in 2000, it was Brown's first novel to introduce the character of Robert Langdon, the crime-solving Harvard professor of iconography and religious art played by actor Tom Hanks in the big-screen adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code."

Hanks is on board to return as Langdon for "Angels & Demons," which the studio optioned as part of its 2003 acquisition of film rights to Brown's "Da Vinci Code."

Despite mainly negative reviews after its premiere at the Cannes film festival in May 2006, "Da Vinci" went on to tally more than $753 million at the box office worldwide.

That film, like the book, teamed up Langdon with a young French cryptologist to solve a murder entwined with the works of Leonardo Da Vinci and a supposed alternate history of Christianity.

A central premise of the story was that Jesus fathered a child by Mary Magdalene, and that a clandestine society has for centuries protected the identity of Christ's living descendants from agents of the Catholic Church.

In "Angels," another murder investigation leads Langdon on a quest to thwart a plot by an ancient group, the Illuminati, to blow up the Vatican during a papal conclave.

JulieSomoski

11-17-2007, 06:27 PM

At least they're trying to resolve the issues. I have a feeling this strike won't last as long as February or March. The faster this strike ends, the longer the season will be (even if it only does give us 4 or 5 more episodes of our shows; anything is better than the 9 or 10 we're getting now.)

ethelmaepotter

11-24-2007, 05:29 PM

I see a lot of people here being way too critical of writers. I particularly like the vicious, underhanded statement submitted by the AMPTP. Producers, studios and production companies have been sitting on billions of dollars of profits for a long, long time.

Studios and production companies routinely engage in "creative" bookkeeping screwing many talented writers and actors out of their fair share for a long time.

The creative people in this industry get shafted every day. However, some 25-year-old producer who does nothing but talk on a cell phone and drive a Mercedes makes millions. Sometimes, he is never on the set and "dictates" mandates from his spacious Malibu estate while not knowing the first thing about writing, acting or how to entertain people.

I encourage those of you here who have bashed writers to stop and research how the entertainment industry REALLY works. $200,000 a year for a writer or even $50,000 per episode for an actor is chicken feed in comparison to what the aforementioned groups make in the long term. And, that fee is generally a one-time fee for writers and actors. Producers make that kind of money on a regular basis for decades after a film or TV show ends production.

Scoobiedoo30

11-24-2007, 05:33 PM

The Writes go back to the Tables Monday November 26, 2007

Brent88

11-26-2007, 04:33 PM

:D

As the WGA strike begins its 4th week, I've been told positive news about today's resumption of contract talks between the writers and the producers. So positive, in fact, that I'm almost fearful to post it. But here goes: a very reliable source tells me that there appears to be a deal seemingly in place between both sides.

"It's already done, basically," the insider describes. That's because of the weeks worth of groundwork by the Hollywood agents working the writers guild leadership on one side, and the studio and network moguls on the other. I was told not to expect an agreement this week. But my source thought it was possible that the strike could be settled before Christmas.

Look, I don't want to raise false hope here. But this source has been very accurate in the past. The negotiations starting today will have a news blackout, so don't expect any significant leaks. But consider the real possibility there's been a breakthrough. Still, I must caution that this is Hollywood -- where defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory nearly every time.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/dare-we-hope-a-deal-has-been-struck/

Cactus Jack

11-26-2007, 04:46 PM

Scoobiedoo30

11-26-2007, 04:49 PM

what do you mean by News Blackout

JulieSomoski

11-26-2007, 05:05 PM

Great news! At least there's still hope in saving the season.

Brent88

11-26-2007, 05:33 PM

what do you mean by News Blackout

There will be no news at all released until a deal is reached(or if the talks collapse again, hopefully not). I think that was a part of the problem last time.

Brent88

11-29-2007, 09:35 PM

Good news!

EXCLUSIVE BULLETIN:[/B] The AMPTP presented what its sources just told me are "a number of New Media proposals" today at Talks Day #4. "This is the day it shook loose," a relieved insider just told me minutes ago. (This is also what I was reporting in my explusive post, Moguls Supposed To Present A Better Offer To Writers At Talks Today (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/exclusive-moguls-supposed-to-present-better-offer-to-writers-at-talks-today/).) I've learned the AMPTP presented the WGA with "new terms involving streaming, made-for, Internet, and other issues". The WGA requested a suspension in the talks until Tuesday December 4th to study the new proposals. My sources say this came as something of a surprise to the moguls' side because their negotiating team was "ready to keep bargaining through the weekend". On the other hand, the AMPTP side waited until the end of today's session to present the terms (and then did so with much fanfare), and it really surprised the WGA negotiators who'd been increasingly doubful there'd be such a moment. But let's not be overly optimistic or naive, either. The big questions now are: Are these truly "new" proposals or just newly packaged "old" proposals? And are they good enough to get this strike settled by Christmas? Let's hope...

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/toldja/

Producers Make New Offer to Writers

15 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood studios presented a sweetened contract offer to striking film and TV writers Thursday, and the writers' negotiators requested a four-day recess to consider it.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a statement that talks will resume Tuesday.

The producers said the new offer included payments for work shown on the Internet, the key sticking points in the talks.

Producers said the new offer is worth $130 million in additional compensation but did not specify whether that figure was per year or over the three-year life of a proposed new contract.

Scoobiedoo30

11-29-2007, 10:19 PM

I just heard the good News from my Step Grandmonther that the strike has ended.

Pavan

11-29-2007, 10:22 PM

STATEMENT REGARDING AMPTP WGA NEGOTIATIONS

LOS ANGELES, November 29, 2007 - "The AMPTP today unveiled a New Economic Partnership to the WGA, which includes groundbreaking moves in several areas of new media, including streaming, content made for new media and programming delivered over digital broadcast channels. The entire value of the New Economic Partnership will deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year. In response, the WGA has asked for time to study the proposals. While we strongly preferred to continue discussions, we respect and understand the WGA's desire to review the proposals. We look forward to resuming talks on Tuesday, December 4.

We continue to believe that there is common ground to be found between the two sides, and that our proposal for a New Economic Partnership offers the best chance to find it."

Brent88

11-29-2007, 11:08 PM

I just heard the good News from my Step Grandmonther that the strike has ended.

It's not over, but it seems to me the WGA is going to strongly consider this(by taking off 4 days).

Best news by far since the strike started.

Scoobiedoo30

11-29-2007, 11:11 PM

I just heard again from my Step Gradmother she herds that it was broadway that is not on Strike what do you mean by taking off 4 day's

Brent88

11-29-2007, 11:13 PM

I just heard again from my Step Gradmother she herds that it was broadway that is not on Strike what do you mean by taking off 4 day's

Yes, the Broadway strike ended a couple of days ago.

They are taking 4 days off presumably to have their lawyers review the proposal. This is a VERY good sign. It's not a done deal obviously, but the fact they are going to review it is a positive.

Scoobiedoo30

11-29-2007, 11:17 PM

so when will they go back to the tables

Brent88

11-29-2007, 11:50 PM

so when will they go back to the tables

4 days=Tuesday.

Mr. Television

11-30-2007, 11:49 AM

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Wga-Strike-Watch/Wga-Calls-Quotnewquot/800028604

WGA Calls "New" Deal a "Bad Deal," Rejects Offer

Well, that didn't take long. The WGA has swiftly dismissed the "New Economic Partnership" put forth by the AMPTP on Thursday, saying in a statement that "for the first three days of this week, the companies presented in essence their November 4 [pre-strike] package with not an iota of movement on any of the issues that matter to writers. Thursday morning, the first new proposal was finally presented to us. It dealt only with streaming and made-for-Internet jurisdiction, and it amounts to a massive rollback."

The WGA reports that with regards to Internet streaming, they were offered "a single fixed payment of less than $250 for a year's reuse of an hour-long program (compared to over $20,000 payable for a network rerun)." For made-for-Internet material, the AMPTP "continued to refuse to grant jurisdiction," "they made absolutely no move on the download formula" and "continue to assert that they can deem any reuse 'promotional' and pay no residual (even if they replay the entire film or TV episode, and even if they make money)."

Talks are scheduled to resume on Tuesday. Says the WGA, "We must fight on, returning to the lines... in force to make it clear that we will not back down, that we will not accept a bad deal, and that we are all in this together."

Brent88

11-30-2007, 01:06 PM

:rolleyes:

I am SO over this.

Mr. Television

11-30-2007, 03:57 PM

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117976776.html?categoryid=2821&cs=1

Talks hit pause button
Negotiations will resume on Tuesday
By DAVE MCNARY

With the writers strike in its fourth week, the companies on Thursday put forth what they consider to be a "groundbreaking" proposal -- and the writers have blasted it.
On the fourth day of closed-door negotiations both sides lifted the news blackout as the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers unveiled its proposal that would deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation to scribes over three years.

The WGA rejected the math and dubbed the proposal both a "massive rollback" and a "bad deal."

Both sides have agreed to continue negotiations on Tuesday. They agreed that a four-day moratorium was needed for the WGA to mull the offer, but the guild issued its terse, point-by-point deconstruction of the deal points only hours after adjourning.

The guild's reaction will undoubtedly add to the town's pessimism that time's running out for the WGA to make a deal and that the AMPTP may turn soon to negotiations with the DGA instead. AMPTP insiders were irked that the WGA initially showed scant interest in the sweetened package of new-media proposals with one noting, "The WGA is not budging."

The companies had initially hoped to issue a joint news announcement about the AMPTP proposal and the WGA's request for a four-day break in talks to study the numbers. The companies had hoped to maintain the press blackout. Instead, the majors were caught off guard when WGA West exec director David Young announced he wouldn't agree to the joint statement because the guild needed to communicate directly with its members.

The AMPTP insisted in its statement that its New Economic Partnership is what's needed to close the deal but the WGA's response showed there's no chance of that happening. WGA West president Patric Verrone and WGA East prez Michael Winship urged members to press on their strike efforts.

"The AMPTP's intractability is dispiriting news but it must also be motivating," said guild presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship. "Any movement on the part of these multinational conglomerates has been the result of the collective action of our membership, with the support of SAG, other unions, supportive politicians, and the general public. We must fight on, returning to the lines on Monday in force to make it clear that we will not back down, that we will not accept a bad deal, and that we are all in this together."

The studios took a more measured approach and said that they would have preferred to continue talks on Friday but "we respect and understand the WGA's desire to review the proposals."

The WGA also released details of the moguls' new proposal, delivered after three days of glacially paced talks that yielded little more than a restatement of previous positions. The three key areas:

For streaming television episodes, the companies proposed a residual structure of a single fixed payment, based on 1.2% of producers' receipts after a six-week promo window, amounting about $250 for a year's reuse of an hour-long program.

For made-for-Internet material, they offered minimums starting at $800 for five minutes up to $1,300 for 15 minutes and granted jurisdiction on derivative material.

No change in the Internet download formula, currently paid at the DVD rate.
The WGA also said it had presented on Wednesday a "comprehensive economic justification" for its proposals, asserting that its entire package would cost $151 million additional over three years.

"That's a little over a 3% increase in writer earnings each year, while company revenues are projected to grow at a rate of 10%," Verrone and Winship said. "We are falling behind."

Talks had broken down Nov. 4 after the WGA had withdrawn its DVD proposal, prompting the AMPTP to begin offering concessions during that session to pay writers for streaming video -- with a six-week promotional window -- and giving scribes jurisdiction over made-for-the-Internet work derived from existing properties without mentioning specific numbers.

But WGA leaders contended the AMPTP response on Nov. 4 wasn't substantive enough given the guild's move to take DVD off the table and the companies' refusal to budge on paying writers for digital downloads.

With pressure growing to end the strike amid the growing number of pinkslips and shuttered TV shows, many in the town had viewed this week's talks with a tinge of optimism after three weeks without negotiations. Hope for a positive outcome stemmed from the combo of the imposition of the news blackout plus extensive shuttle diplomacy efforts by leading agents and showrunners to persuade both sides to return to the table.

If the sides do not make progress next week, it's most likely that the AMPTP would opt for launching negotiations with the Directors Guild of America. The DGA's contract expires June 30, and the directors have indicated they're ready to start talks even if the WGA hasn't made a deal -- a move that could undermine the WGA's leverage.

Speculation has also emerged that the WGA could call off the strike and tell writers to return to work, leaving open the possibility that the strike could resume at any time. Meanwhile, the guild's continued to mount an active campaign of picketing and rallies to keep the public pressure on the companies to make a deal.

The WGA West has scheduled a "Hollywood Homecoming" event at the Sony picket line today. Those scheduled to appear include Christopher Knopf, former WGA West president; writers Millard Kaufman, Norman Borisoff, Arthur Marx, Don Mankiewicz, Tom Mankiewicz, John Mankiewicz and Dominic Stefano; director Andrew McCullough; and actress Lelia Goldoni.

Meanwhile, WGA East has reached a tentative agreement with ABC covering about 250 news employees who have been working under an expired contract for nearly three years.

The guild made the announcement Thursday, noting that the deal had been accepted by its negotiating committee and will be put to a vote for ratification Dec. 13 at meetings in New York and Washington, D.C.

noveel

11-30-2007, 04:01 PM

:rolleyes:

I am SO over this.

At least talks are still scheduled. If the strike ends soon, it'll mean the writers probably caved in.

Mr. Television

11-30-2007, 04:05 PM

At least talks are still scheduled. If the strike ends soon, it'll mean the writers probably caved in.
Which is why I don't think the strike is going to end soon. It looks like the AMPTP is going to turn its attention to the DGA pretty soon.

EmoJoe

11-30-2007, 04:14 PM

JulieSomoski

11-30-2007, 04:45 PM

it kind of sounds like both sides are being greedy to me at this point...then again i dont know much about the actual deal. i just dont want my frikin shows to be effected any more then they already are and whoever is causing the strike to continue needs to die :(

Both sides are being greedy, but right now, I believe the WGA doesn't want this strike to end anytime soon. A great deal was written up for the writer's, and they were even allowed to look it over for a few days, and they still went against it, saying it was "unfair." Come on. It makes you wonder if they really want to work again.

clj2

11-30-2007, 05:05 PM

Excuse my sounding stupid....but what's the DGA?

Not meaning to be pessimistic, but I don't see this strike ending any time soon.

Mr. Television

11-30-2007, 05:13 PM

Excuse my sounding stupid....but what's the DGA?

Not meaning to be pessimistic, but I don't see this strike ending any time soon.
The Directors Guild of America. Their contract is up soon as are the actors next summer.

Scoobiedoo30

12-03-2007, 05:12 PM

They go back to the table Tuesday, December 4. 2007

EmoJoe

12-03-2007, 05:19 PM

Both sides are being greedy, but right now, I believe the WGA doesn't want this strike to end anytime soon. A great deal was written up for the writer's, and they were even allowed to look it over for a few days, and they still went against it, saying it was "unfair." Come on. It makes you wonder if they really want to work again.
yeah, i agree. i was on the writers' side at first, but they're kind of being greedy and selfish now, especially considering this strike is effecting a LOT more people then just the writers.

JulieSomoski

12-03-2007, 05:39 PM

yeah, i agree. i was on the writers' side at first, but they're kind of being greedy and selfish now, especially considering this strike is effecting a LOT more people then just the writers.

Yeah, at times, I'm not sure if they realize how badly they're affecting a lot of people. They were offered a deal, which sounded pretty good, and they declined it. If that isn't selfish, I don't know what is. How much more can the producers give them that the writers wont turn away?

friendsfan77

12-03-2007, 06:45 PM

This affecting so much and how things are being handled is pretty much why I can't fully support them 100%.

God, I can't wait for this to be over.

Cactus Jack

12-03-2007, 07:14 PM

OMG cnat they just AGREE on something?

WRITERS, DON'T F*CK IT UP WITH YOUR GREEDINESS TOMORROW!

clj2

12-03-2007, 07:32 PM

Yeah, at times, I'm not sure if they realize how badly they're affecting a lot of people. They were offered a deal, which sounded pretty good, and they declined it. If that isn't selfish, I don't know what is. How much more can the producers give them that the writers wont turn away?Yeah, I agree. Both sides are probably pretty heated right now. If they don't work something out tomorrow, I don't see them going back to the tables until next year....the writers blew their chance, and I'm not too sure if the AMPTP is going to offer anything better. I think it'll eventually be the WGA that backs down, and they probably aren't ready for that now.

Just my take...

EmoJoe

12-03-2007, 10:40 PM

Yeah, I agree. Both sides are probably pretty heated right now. If they don't work something out tomorrow, I don't see them going back to the tables until next year....the writers blew their chance, and I'm not too sure if the AMPTP is going to offer anything better. I think it'll eventually be the WGA that backs down, and they probably aren't ready for that now.

Just my take...
agreed...it kind of seems like to me, the writers think they have the producers where they want them and can convince them to do anything, which isn't so. they kind of seem to be taking advantage of the talks though by asking for even more.

Scoobiedoo30

12-03-2007, 10:42 PM

Do you we know what time they are schedule to go back to the table on Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Mr. Television

12-04-2007, 07:07 PM

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6509477.html

WGA STRIKE COVERAGE: CBS to Use Showtime Content on Network

Moonves: Network Will Offer Full Schedule in Months Ahead

By Jon Hemingway -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/4/2007 1:51:00 PM

CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves said Tuesday afternoon that he was hopeful about a resolution of the Writers Guild of America strike as the two sides sit back down at the table, but “not terribly optimistic.” He also said the network was prepared to offer a full schedule in the months ahead.

Speaking at the UBS Global Media and Communications conference in New York, Moonves said he is looking for some movement today, but he admitted that the two sides were still far apart. He added that it was imperative that the two sides “stay in the room, discuss what’s on the table and to come to a resolution.”

Asked how the network would handle programming in the coming months, Moonves noted that December was a month flush with holiday specials, while CBS had original programming for the first quarter and added some reality programming for February, such as Big Brother and Survivor.

He also said CBS planned to air some shows from sister premium-cable network Showtime, although he did not identify which ones.

Addressing the financial effects of the strike, Moonves said ratings would probably be down without original programming, but costs would also be down. “In terms of financial future, in the near-term and midterm, it will not affect us at all,” he added.

Mr. Television

12-04-2007, 07:09 PM

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/12/strike_sends_season_sliding.php

Strike Sends Season Sliding
Nets May Crash Cable’s Summer Party
By James Hibberd and Jon Lafayette

Once the writers strike is settled, broadcast networks are considering running scripted programming into summer to complete their season-order commitments.

Production on most comedies and dramas has either shut down or is close to it. At this point, regardless of when the strike ends, there’s going to be an on-air scheduling gap for many shows.

With writers and studios back at the negotiating table, networks are starting to wonder how they’ll schedule the remainder of their seasons should production resume.

Executives say such decisions will be made on a show-by-show basis involving a host of considerations: When the strike is settled, how many episodes of a series have aired, how many remain and how long before new episodes are completed. One key concern is whether there will be enough time to produce a series’ remaining episodes before production begins for the 2008-09 season.

But if networks need to roll episodes into summer to finish the season, executives indicated a willingness to punch through the spring boundary—to a point.

"The season is only a Nielsen construct," said Jeff Bader, ABC’s executive VP of scheduling. "We sell 52 weeks a year."

Historically, the network season has ended in May because fewer people watch television during the summer, lowering ratings and ad revenues, although that gap has shrunk considerably over the past decade.

Vince Manze, NBC’s president of program planning, scheduling and strategy, saw an upside to potentially extending the season.

"It would be terrific to start breaking these cycles," Mr. Manze said. "But you can’t go too far into summer. The [viewing levels drop], you start running into the Fourth of July. I’m thinking one or two shows, at most."

NBC faces a potential production crunch with "The Office" and "My Name Is Earl." The network ordered 25 half-hours of "Earl" and 30 of "The Office" (though the latter has aired four hourlong episodes as partial scheduling compensation).

CBS’ Kelly Kahl, senior executive VP of programming operations, said another factor is whether a show is serialized.

"It will depend on the nature of the show," Mr. Kahl said. "If it’s a serialized show, it may run longer. If it’s self-contained, maybe we wouldn’t."

In recent years, broadcasters have emphasized original reality shows and repeats of scripted series during the summer. The possibility of the season expanding could put a damper on cable networks, which take advantage of broadcasters going on vacation by airing original programming, drawing some of their highest ratings during the third quarter.

"[Broadcast] has suffered over the past years because of cable doing much better in the summer and then maybe some of these viewers not coming back," said Andy Donchin, director of broadcast for ad buyer Carat. "So I don’t think it would be the worst thing in the world for the networks to have original product in the summer if they could afford to."

Mr. Donchin said he didn’t think cable networks would be devastated if broadcasters extended their shows into the summer.

"I think it would be good for television, versus bad for cable. I think overall television would be the winner."

Cable network executives said they were beginning to examine whether they would have to alter their schedules if original episodes of broadcast shows air during the summer.

"If they’re going to be running in the summer, that’s going to impose on cable’s season," said one cable executive. "That’s why we started doing our originals there to begin with."

Last season a record number of networks launched expensive original scripted series in the summer. Almost as soon as broadcast finales aired, USA Network rolled out "The Starter Wife" and Lifetime uncorked "Army Wives."

That contributed to record ratings for ad-supported cable. Last summer, cable networks had a record 52% share of viewers 18 to 49, compared with 24% for the broadcasters.

But many cable networks now air original programming year-round. TNT has fresh episodes of "The Closer" and "Saving Grace" in December, while USA has originals of "Psyche" and "Monk" scheduled in January. FX has "Nip/Tuck" on the air now. Its season launched in September.

But even those networks usually try to avoid launching series in sweeps months, when the networks minimize reruns and air "very special episodes" of their shows. Until the strike is settled, it’s not clear what the cable networks will want to sidestep, other than Fox’s "American Idol."

Depending on how long the strike lasts, it might delay production of some of next summer’s cable shows, and networks are considering holding the original shows that are ready now for June, July and August.

Others say that when the broadcasters air their shows simply won’t affect them.

"We think we’re pretty well positioned regardless of whether the broadcast networks settle the strike and have fresh product," said Henry Schleiff, CEO of Crown Media, parent of Hallmark Channel. Hallmark has enough original movies already in production to take it through the summer, he said.

Mr. Schleiff said Hallmark’s family-friendly programming had appeal whether or not the broadcasters were airing originals. Its recent movie "A Grandpa for Christmas" was the network’s third-highest-rated ever.

"There is obviously an audience for this product year-round," he said.

JulieSomoski

12-04-2007, 08:40 PM

Buffyboy323

12-05-2007, 08:07 AM

Thanks for posting that!

This is very good news. If the strike does end in the next few weeks, I think the Fall 2007 TV season might be able to be saved. Airing the second half of the season's shows into the summer isn't a bad idea. I agree with the executive who said shows should only air up to a certain date. I think the networks should air the final episodes of their shows throughout June. They shouldn't go beyond that.

I don't agree with the executive who said only one or two shows on the network should have an extended season. There's a lot of shows that designed their storyliones to playout over the course of 20+ episodes. It wouldn't be fare to ignore that. I understand if they would have to cut the episode order down to 18 or 20 though. But it wouldn't be fair for a show to be brought back in the Spring, with only a 3 or 5 episode commitment. The ending is going to be rushed and probably just a mess.

Janice

12-05-2007, 08:05 PM

Not good news for baseball fans, lol. My husband watches just about every game. Misses maybe 10 games a year.

Cactus Jack

12-05-2007, 08:11 PM

Not good news for baseball fans, lol. My husband watches just about every game. Misses maybe 10 games a year.
You wnat us Office,30 Rock,Scrubs,Earl,Famiyl Guy,Simpsons,SNL, MadTV etc fans to miss new eps so your husband can watch a game? LOL jk

EmoJoe

12-05-2007, 08:41 PM

i wouldnt mind a summer season at all. i just want a full season of my shows. a 9-episode season just isn't enough. i'd even settle for a 15 or 16 episode season at this point...

Cactus Jack

12-05-2007, 08:48 PM

i wouldnt mind a summer season at all. i just want a full season of my shows. a 9-episode season just isn't enough. i'd even settle for a 15 or 16 episode season at this point...
Ditto!

Mr. Television

12-05-2007, 09:06 PM

Yea I don't watch much tv in the summer and I don't plan too this year either. If some of my favorites air, I'll tape them and watch them in the fall. I refuse to be dictated by television anymore. If the studios and writers want to stay on strike, I don't give a damn anymore.

Janice

12-05-2007, 09:13 PM

You wnat us Office,30 Rock,Scrubs,Earl,Famiyl Guy,Simpsons,SNL, MadTV etc fans to miss new eps so your husband can watch a game? LOL jk
Yes, that's EXACTLY what I want. ;)

Buffyboy323

12-05-2007, 09:27 PM

i wouldnt mind a summer season at all. i just want a full season of my shows. a 9-episode season just isn't enough. i'd even settle for a 15 or 16 episode season at this point...
That's exactly what I was saying. If they have to cut back on 5 or 6 episodes, that's fine. But a whole half a season wouldn't be fare AT ALL.

Cactus Jack

12-05-2007, 09:29 PM

Yes, that's EXACTLY what I want. ;)
Damn! :mad: ;)

Buffyboy323

12-05-2007, 09:34 PM

Yea I don't watch much tv in the summer and I don't plan too this year either.
Same here. I wouldn't mind a full schedule throughout June. But I don't want to watch anything new during July or August.

Brent88

12-05-2007, 09:56 PM

Same here. I wouldn't mind a full schedule throughout June. But I don't want to watch anything new during July or August.

I wouldn't want anything scripted to be new in July/August either. Those are the months when I enjoy trash reality. :lol:

But June? For sure. June is such a BLAH month normally. Most of the good summer shows haven't premiered yet, and the fall shows are over. Definitely the worst TV month, with December a close 2nd(but December is understood because of the holidays).

Mr. Television

12-05-2007, 09:59 PM

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/12/hollywood_writers_strike_and_your_tv_be_afraid_be_very_afraid.html

Hollywood writers strike and your TV (be afraid, be very afraid)
By Charlie McCollum
Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 1:03 pm in TV, Charlie McCollum, General.

It appears that last week’s optimism about a pre-Christmas end to the television and film writers strike was more than a bit premature.

The two sides — the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (otherwise known as The Moguls) — did negotiate all week with some limited progress being made.

But by Friday, things were still stalemated over payments for digital media (both new and the streaming of previously-created material) and both parties were engaged in full-scale spin control over whether the writers were rejecting a reasonable proposal or the moguls were digging in their heels. Top studio and network executives (who had been pretty invisible since the strike began) were burning up the phone lines with reporters trying to tell their side of the story — albeit on a “sourced'’ basis. (The sudden PR push was a measure of how badly the bosses were — and are — losing the battle of public opinion to the writers.)

Negotiations are scheduled to resume Tuesday — with the WGA reportedly ready to offer a new proposal — but all the momentum towards a settlement seems to have dissipated. The writers (including the so-called show-runners — the executive producers-writers who are responsible for most of the top series on TV) are sticking to their guns. The networks are scrambling to line up deals for shows that don’t require WGA writers. The studios are trying to juggle their film lineups to fill in the growing number of gaps created by movies being put on hold because of script problems.

So the prognosis isn’t pretty, particularly for TV viewers. There’s a chance some of the late night talk shows will come back in January but without their writing staffs. (That happened during the last writers’ strike two decades ago and the result was really ugly.) NBC is getting ready to unleash a January schedule that includes a raft of reality shows. (I’m sure you’re just dying to see “Celebrity Apprentice'’ and the new “American Gladiator.'’) Most of the top series have already run out of fresh episodes, although a few such as “House'’ still have some in the can.

But to give you an idea of just how pessimistic folks in TV world are, it appears like the Television Critics Association January press tour — scheduled to begin Jan. 8 in L.A. — could be canceled. NBC has already pulled out. The other networks won’t commit because they can’t guarantee show creators and talents would cross inevitable picketlines. Cable channels are having the same problems (Lifetime, the Turner channels and those of MTV have already pulled out). Even PBS says it won’t put on a presentation if the strike is still going on.

About the only good thing about the strike at this point is that some of the best and funniest short-form TV you’ve seen is turning up on the Web as the writers turn their talents to mocking the Moguls. Particularly striking (no pun intended) is a series of online “public service announcements'’ called “Speechless'’ done by top-line writers and directors and featuring big-name TV and film actors. You find them on YouTube or at the United Hollywood Website.

But as clever as the ads — and other work being done by the writers done — are, it’s still no substitute for the real deal. And returning to the real deal still seems almost as far away as it did when the strike started.

of Motion Picture and Television Producers

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17 Responses to “Hollywood writers strike and your TV (be afraid, be very afraid)”
John StJohn Says:
December 3rd, 2007 at 9:24 pm
It’s sad that behind the scenes support people will lose employment during this strike. They are victims even more than the viewers. Other casualties are authors and publishers who promote their new books on TV shows like the Daly Show and Colbert. I sympathize with both sides, but I urge them to reach a compromise. Everyone loses as the strike goes on.

Laura H Says:
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:06 pm
This couldn’t happen to a more deserving medium. Hollywood producers and the writers who churn out typical tv trash have been doing this country and the whole world a disservice for a long time. They continually portray immorality and vice as societal norms. They put obscene words in the mouths of virtually every character. Sexual references are inserted in almost every script. It gets worse and worse with each season. I really hope the strike goes on and on, for years!!!

Matty P. Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 9:16 am
I find it refreshing that the rich want to get back at the rich, and who ever gets caught in the cross fire be damned. I will miss my shows, but I have plenty of movies to watch, and BOOKS TO READ. After all the real writers did not go on strike. We still have the paper to read every morning; we still have new books being released weekly. So keep up the good work, and when the “writers” have ruined there media, and no one turns into the shows, maybe then they can all feel what the behind the scenes people are feeling. After all those are the true victims, not us who watch.

Stephanie Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 11:12 am
How many more stupid reality TV shows can they come up with? Don’t answer that. Far as I’m concerned, they’ve got way too many of those, anyway. I’m with Matty P., I’ve got movies, books and a LIBRARY close by. Guess I’ll be saving on my electric, too, with not watching TV. They ought to just get their crap together and get this thing settled, paying those who DESERVE it instead of lining their pockets. But no, that would be too easy for em.

Marilyn P Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
“…losing the battle of public opinion to the writers” I think NOT. Every blog out there is not for the rich to get richer but sympathizes for the poor guy or gal making non-union wage in the industry. Do you know the average writer makes $5,000 - $8,000 per week? That sure tops my salary!! How about you? Why does anyone think they can get paid a percentage of the gross profits if they don’t own a piece of the pie? Can you go to your boss and demand that you want a portion of their profits… I think NOT again. Wake up Hollywood and start getting paid what you are worth, like the rest of America. And before you ask; No I do not work in the business but have several family members and friends who do. Behind the scenes my ‘peeps’ say the WGA is just too greedy. Hollywood stop making us watch more commercials just so you can get richer… because that is what will happen. The hour long TV show, which now plays out to about 41 minutes, give or take of viewing time, will be 35 minutes… thank God for DVR!!!!

Suzanne Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Ditto Laura H. When I sit in front of the TV and watch the sexual innuendos every other sentence and realize that kids and teenagers are watching this is makes me livid that the TV industry puts this out there to make money. It has already made out teenagers think, that at 13, if they haven’t had sex they are behind and that it’s okay to criticize their peers for the type of clothes they wear, car they drive, where they live. It’s all surface and no substance. Now that I think about it, even though I don’t want TV programming to vanish all together, I wish most of it would go away and we could get back to real entertainment. TV shows (and movies) now are nothing but loud, violent, blatant sex, in your face trash that is an influence our populace, esp young people do not need. Maybe a new generation of writers could do better.

suzanne Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
These statements that I keep reading that people are on the writers side must be a plant and not based on the real facts. I don’t know anyone who supports the way the writers did this. Maybe their cause if they are willing to reach a reasonable agreement, but not the way they did it. Putting all those people out of work. Shame on them.

Kristi Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I hope the strike ends soon, as I am a t.v. junkie.. I hope they come up w/ a solution fast for the writers and for all the people (other than actors) can get back to work to support their families too.. But as of some of the other comments made about being happy they are on strike becasue they don’t like the sexual content they are writing.. I have one thing to say to those people. CHANGE THE CHANNEL!!!!

Daniel Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
TV’s have this great parental control feature. You should use it. It’s no one’s fault but your own if you can’t peel your eyes away from this stuff you claim to hate so much.

Annie Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Yeah Larua and Suzanne.
I never post on these things but, I am thrilled that someone else feels the way I do about TV. As for Daniel and Kristi, I am sorry that you think today’s TV content is acceptable. It is raising a new generation of children (who don’t have parents around 24/7) to think material things, looks, and immorality are admiral. Very scary. We need someone to stand up and portray family values again. Thank You Bill Cosby, Tim Allen and Ray Ramona! As for the writers, they are the ones writing this narcissisct and immoral garbage so, maybe they’ve deluded themselves enough to think they really are “owed” more! SAD SAD SAD

Bob Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 9:10 am
You all are a bunch of *******. That is all. By now you have guessed that I am a teenager and my view is you sould all die

That is all

bob Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 9:13 am
WHY DO ADULTS FEEL THE NEED TO MEDDLE IN KIDS LIFE. WERE NOT ******* AND IF WE WANT TO WATCH SEXUAL AND VIOLENT SCENES THEN LET US. IT IS NOT TVS FAULT AND NOT EVERYONE WHO WATCHES THIS WILL TURN INTO A SEX ADDICT MURDERER, ONLY IF THE KIDS HAS A ISSSUE IN THE BEGGING

Susan Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Please stop with this “rich writers” thing already. You quote average salaries - do you know what an average is? That means that they take the highest paid writers salary and the lowest and AVERAGE it out. Get it? Not all writers are rich. Some are. Some make $30,000 a year. If you want that job and money, then go for it just like those writers did.
Jobs in entertainment are never secure, so being out of work is the norm at times. No one lost their jobs because of the writers. The writers contract expired, no new one was agreed on and they legally went on strike. They didn’t “walk out”. They have no contract. Do you work without a contract of some sort telling you what you will be paid and what your duties are? That’s what I thought. Would you work not knowing if you would get paid for it? It’s really the studios and networks fault for the strike. The writers didn’t fire or layoff anyone. That would be the giant mega wealthy corporations that are trying to bust the writers union. If they were planning on ending this quickly they would have kept everyone on. But the corporations are heartless.

And if you don’t like the content of your TV programming - turn the TV off. Your tastes are your own, so use your own judgement. Don’t seek to censor the rest of us.

suze Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Bob is sooooo right - what violent TV shows did Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden watch that made them so blood thirsty? Oops, maybe they read it in a BOOK! Shocking!

Bob, check out the unitedhollywood site mentioned in the article, send some pencils if you want to. I am. A lot of TV shows fans are teens and just because adults don’t like the same shows, that makes it crap? Maybe they are just too old.

amanda Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
man i have read a few of the comments here and let me just say I am a mother of 2 young children, a mother that works as a script supervisor in the film industry. This strick is not my fight, I make a good living (with really long hours mind you) BUT I do not make what writers and producers make. I am however fully effected by this strike. I don’t work…plan and simple while this strike is on. It is not my fight and yet I am completely controled by what the writers and producers decide. Strike NEVER end they way anyone wants them to end, NO ONE wins in a strike, and it is even sadder to know there are thousands of crews out there waiting on a few greedy folks….

amanda Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
man I have read a few of the comments here and let me just say I am a mother of 2 young children, a mother that works as a script supervisor in the film industry. This strike is not my fight, I make a good living (with really long hours mind you) BUT I do not make what writers and producers make. I am however fully effected by this strike. I don’t work…plain and simple while this strike is on. It is not my fight and yet I am completely controled by what the writers and producers decide. Strikes NEVER end they way anyone wants them to end, NO ONE wins in a strike, and it is even sadder to know there are thousands of crews out there waiting on a few greedy folks….

Jess Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Huh. They should just tell all those spoilt, moany hollywood writers that they’re fired, and give someone else a go. Our whole stupid society is far too tangled up in contracts and schemes for its own good.