WGA Writer’s Strike 101
As many of you know, many of the television writers have been striking for the past week or two. Immediately following the strike, late night television started airing reruns, soon followed by soap operas. Soon primetime TV - and your favorite show - might follow. Most television shows have about three episodes left that have already been filmed; after those three you might be stuck watching reruns indefinitely. Let’s assume that the majority of primetime television will stop airing new episodes halfway through January. until then, the strike will have little effect; however, after that it could be disastrous.
All the major networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS, CW and Fox are all suspected to be planning several new reality TV shows to supplement the shows that are under the WGA contract. Because reality TV shows aren’t under the contract, if the strike doesn’t end soon, it’s likely we’ll see a surge in reality TV shows in the near future. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for some shows; for example, ABC’s Lost and Fox’s 24 each have several unaired episodes that weren’t intended to start until January or February anyway. For shows such as these, it’s likely they’ll see an increase in ratings if the strike persists.
The Writer’s Guild of America are striking because they want to have a portion of DVD and online revenue. Currently they do not receive royalties from these mediums. Typically, this wouldn’t be such a huge issue, except it’s very possible that the Actor’s and Director’s Guilds might also strike next summer if the Writer’s Guild is successfully in getting a portion of these new revenue streams.
November 17th, 2007 No Comments posted in Writing News
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