The Writers Guild of America has a contract expiring on November 1st and they are likely going on strike right after. Apparently there was a strike in 1988 which lasted five months, and another was averted back in 2001, but the WGA got “bent over” in that deal and they have vowed to not let it happen again.
This is a huge problem for us that I really didn’t understand or realize until a friend told a bunch of us on the sports blog I run.
More than likely, none of the shows we’re watching right now will have any kind of conclusion or finale this season. Right now, episodes of your favorite shows written and completed should be enough to last until January. After that, come February sweeps, the entire landscape of what we watch could change. Or what we don’t watch.
Look for a LOT of Dancing with the Stars or reality TV that doesn’t require writers under the WGA contract.
This could be bad for new shows too that haven’t been picked up for the rest of the season yet. Gossip Girl already has been, but Journeyman and others haven’t. It wouldn’t be cost-effective to keep those sets and non-WGA people employed while they are losing money during the strike.
Read more about it here, and I’ll keep you updated. But the TRUE downside of all this is that shows like 24, Lost and Battlestar Galactica that don’t premier until next year, could be pushed back even further.
Yuck.
Great article on the 1988 strike can be found here;
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2001/jan01/jan15/3_wed/news3wednesday.html
That’s scary to think that the 1988 strike still lingers today as in loss of viewers. I must not have been paying attention when I was 13 to all that
I hope the end of that article is correct and that no strike happens.
By the way, this is another good reason to tape the Damages marathon
You’ll have something to watch when everything goes to crap!
Call me an optimist, but I can’t see a strike lasting very long. There’s just too much money involved.
And if it does I can catch up on my blockbuster queue or even..wait for it…read a book.
Nooooo!!! I hope this doesn’t happen! I need my fix of “Lost” and we’ve already had to wait so long!!!