Hollywood Dogfight: Writers' Strike Imminent
In one corner, strike-eager writers. In another corner, strike-happy moguls. Caught in the middle? Strike-anxious viewers and scripted fare like highly-serialized "24" or fragile "Pushing Daisies." Unfortunately, it is no longer a question of "if." Now it's all about "when."
Although there had been rumors a walkout could be postponed until Christmas, members of the writers' union believe the best way they can achieve their objectives is to hurt the prime-time the most. Postponing the strike would only allow the networks to bank up more episodes.
On the other side of the spectrum, there is even a group of Hollywood moguls who believe a strike may not be the worst of options since the new fall slate of programming is performing miserably with the highest rated new (ABC) shows getting 10-12 million viewers or less and all non-ABC shows scoring less than 9 million.
There are no breakout-hits and even the proven shows like "CSI," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives" have lost a lot of ground bringing huge losses to the networks that promised their advertisers the kind of ratings they are no longer able to deliver.
A strike, these moguls reason, would give the networks an opportunity to get rid of the underwhelming shows, put the blame for their cancellation on writers' union and their strike, and re-think their strategies for the new season. They see the current season D.O.A.
Unfortunately, critically-acclaimed and fragile new series like "Pushing Daisies" which are doing reasonably well would probably be hurt the most as they need time to grow and develop and taking them off the air for a prolonged time would without any doubt disrupt their momentum, as die-hard fans of CBS' "Jericho" can surely confirm.
The last writers' strike in 1988 lasted 5 months and caused great damage to the TV industry when shows went off air in late March and didn't come back till November. And when they did? The ratings for most of the shows went at least 10% down.
If a strike is called this year (it may happen as early as tonight) your favorite shows will disappear by January and the schedule will be filled with several new and untested midseason series as well as a bunch of "American Idols" and "Big Brothers."
Labels: TV Business, Writers Strike
posted by Justin Van De Kamp at
8:30 AM
7 Comments:
so we cant get back our tv shows until next september? what do the writers want? why cant the networks just give it to them?
Hey I wonder if they can pull together another Dancing with the Stars at the last minute? It might be overkill to have them back to back, especially with the spinoff show.
I also wonder how much Lost has been scripted (my favorite show) and I'll be so bummed if it means it won't be showing in February as promised.
If they do strike, is there any chance they could come to an agreement before the damage is done?
If the strike ends fairly quickly, say till Christmas, I suppose the damage will be minimal. The networks could stretch the already filmed episodes into February sweeps and then either cut the full season orders by 2-3 episodes or even produce all 22-23 episodes on really tight deadlines. It all depends on how long the strike lasts.
"24" would suffer the most, they already began production late and have filmed only 3 episodes - there is no way they can produce a whole season of 24 episodes if there's a longer strike.
"LOST" has more episodes in the can, and their order is shorter, but they also can't withstand a very long strike.
The writers want a share of profits from digital media, Internet distribution, etc.
The producers say they need all profits from these sources to recoup the rising production costs.
Also, one producer's counter-argument was: "I shouldn't have to pay the plumber every time I flush my toilet."
hm, and is like every writer part of the union ?
or aren't there more "independant" writers ?
of what about people like shonda rhimes or marc cherry ? who also write put produce the show.
It's seems highly unlikely that the series creator would let their show be damaged in that amount.
they could write some episodes in the mean time ...
probably not as much, but at least two or three...
right ?
Marc Cherry, as well as one of the writers of "LOST", is on the writers' union negotiating committee.
All writers would be banned from writing, including the showrunners and producers.
Yes, people like Cherry, or Greg Berlanti ('Brothers & Sisters,' 'Dirty Sexy Money') do seem to have a conflict of interest here, but the rules are clear - there can be no writing until the strike is called off.
Furthermore, it is not clear whether these union members would be able to do any work whatsoever. The strike may prevent them from running their shows as well, which means some shows may have to shutdown the whole production despite having some extra scripts.
I'm still confused about why the 'Writers guild of America' or whatever it is called has such control over the writers and showrunners?
Surely as a showrunner like Marc Cherry and Shonda Rimes for example you'd be hesitant to strike knowing that an audience is what keeps your show going which in turn is what's keeping you in a job. If Grey's Anatomy returns post strike with 14 Million viewers it will have almost halved the numbers it once got in a very short time.
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