NEW YORK (MediaWeek) - The daytime soap operas might be losing their bubbles in the weeks ahead as networks resort to episodes not penned by striking writers.

The Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since November 5, has picketed for several days in front of ABC headquarters in New York, primarily to protest its airing of "All My Children" episodes written by non-union members. ABC is the only network to produce all of its soap operas, while "Days of Our Lives" on NBC is produced by Corday Prods. and all of the CBS soaps are produced outside the network, including two by Procter & Gamble and one by Sony.

The networks and soap production companies have gone radio silent about how many scripts they still have from WGA writing staffs, and the writers themselves say it varies from soap to soap.

"Our daytime shows have remained in production and have continued to produce original episodes" is all Chris Ender, senior vp communications at CBS, would say. An ABC statement simply read: "The shows are staffed, and we have people in place to continue producing original programming."

Regarding the number of remaining WGA-written soap scripts, Courtney Simon, who writes for "As the World Turns," which is produced by P&G for CBS, said: "There is a huge variation from show to show. Some do not want to get too far ahead with their story lines." But Simon said she's heard that scripts written by her team will run out this week.

It remains to be seen what impact this will have on viewership.

Simon does not believe that the writers behind the new scripts will be able to maintain the integrity and focus of the story lines. "It will be painful for us to see what happens to our story lines and know that when we return, we will have to clean up what these makeshift teams do," she said.

So far, the ratings and viewer levels for the soaps on all three networks have been pretty much flat since the strike began -- not a surprise since the scripts being used were from the regular writing teams. Going forward, however, ratings could take a melodramatic turn.


http://www.reuters.com/article/televisionNews/idUSN2143974920080122

I might buy the argument more if some shows writing didn't already suck before the strike(AMC:wave: ). In my mind I don't know how far they think the quality of writing has gone down since it's been bad for so long anyway.

If they don't continue the soaps without them their might not be any to come back to after the strike is over. The Soaps never really recovered from being pre-empted so long during the O.J. Simpson trial. Some of these people need to get a grip.

I might buy the argument more if some shows writing didn't already suck before the strike(AMC:wave: ). In my mind I don't know how far they think the quality of writing has gone down since it's been bad for so long anyway.
I second that. *coughGeneralHospitalcough*

Simon does not believe that the writers behind the new scripts will be able to maintain the integrity and focus of the story lines. "It will be painful for us to see what happens to our story lines and know that when we return, we will have to clean up what these makeshift teams do," she said.
That is so funny. A number of viewers (including myself) think ATWT's current state is such a mess with the regular writing team. Most of the storylines are unwatchable. They wouldn't know what integrity was if it jumped up and bit them.

That is so funny. A number of viewers (including myself) think ATWT's current state is such a mess with the regular writing team. Most of the storylines are unwatchable. They wouldn't know what integrity was if it jumped up and bit them.
And after the first week with the scab writers, myself and others are already observing signs of improvement.

I'm not a fan of many of the storylines. But it seems that the day to day dialogue is much better than before, even compared to two weeks ago. Also, the characters seem to have gotten out of their individual isolation bubbles and are interacting with each other. They're even using history again. I was floored when Casey came back to town to see Will and Gwen, and Will actually talked about his time in the mental ward while Casey talked about prison. Then during Jack and Carly scenes, they mentioned history too and it was important to the scene. Carly also KNEW Rosanna was sick again. I also don’t think we would have seen Lisa and Casey reunite so soon if the regular writers were in charge.

Jack and Holden are beginning to letting up on their higher than thou attitudes. After being on the backburner for a good while, Henry is finally supposed to be getting a storyline besides pimping other people's potential relationships. Luke and Noah are finally getting a front burner storyline of their own as well and more airtime by the end of next month after damn near everyone and their mother asked time and time again for them to get decent airtime for months, and they should be on more than once a week. And speaking of balance, that is starting getting better too.

Definitely one good thing out of the strike. Maybe I'm getting my hopes up a little, but it looks like TPTB are now starting to give a crap about what the fans want.

I hope Jean Passanante never comes back. Ever. Please to everyone out there in the soap business, do not hire this woman.