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Monday, November 5, 2007
11/6: Writers strike’s impact on TV
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
From what I’ve been reading and hearing, this writers strike could be long and ugly. It’s basically a battle for a share of the digital world and how much money the studios are willing to pay the writers in that burgeoning realm. The writers, who felt they were gypped on DVD sales, want more on the Web, the cel phone, the iPod. Studios are worried that it’s too early to ascertain what is the right level of compensation for such mediums because they aren’t generating much income right now. They are also worried about setting a precedent for actors and directors to jump on next year when SAG and DGA negotiatve contracts.
This strike has been a long time coming so both sides have prepared. Studios have been stockpiling scripts. The Writers Guild has been stockpiling a strike fund to give low-interest loans to its members. So far, both sides appear to be far apart even after the writers took raising DVD residual payments off the table.
There are about 12,000 WGA members, of which half are employed at any one time. The residual payments from repeats and DVDs have helped keep many writers going between full-time gigs.
Here’s what will happen:
Already, starting last night, the late-night shows such as Leno, Letterman, Conan, “The Daily Show,” Kimmel and “The Colbert Report” are on repeats. They all use writers and they aren’t going to go on without them. “The View” and ‘Regis & Kelly” are talk shows that will go on as normal because they don’t use WGA writers.
The upcoming ABC show “Cashmere Mafia” starring Lucy Liu has already been postponed. And NBC has said it won’t be doing the “Heroes: Origins” episodes, which were to be a precursor to a possible spinoff.
In a few weeks, soap operas will run out of scripts and shut down.
If the strike lingers, scripted shows such “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Heroes” will run out fresh episodes and networks will be forced to air repeats, reality fare, game shows or newsmagazines. By February, broadcast TV will look suspiciously like summer. New shows such as “Pushing Daisies” and “Gossip Girl” may see momentum stymied. Netwokrs will have to decide if they are going to air only a few episodes of “Lost” and “24” or none at all. (For “24,” it might end up being none at all given how important it is to run the entire show in sequence with no repeats.)
Shows such as “American Idol,” “Survivor” and “America’s Next Top Model” are not affected since the folks who do edit or refine the storylines on these shows are not part of the Writers Guild (despite efforts to do so.).
Broadcast TV is already struggling this fall. This could be just another kick in the groin as viewers wander elsehwere. In 1988, the last time the writers struck, the broadcast networks lost about 9 percent of their viewers, many of whom never came back.
For the film industry, the impact won’t be immediate given the advance time and the ease of stockpiling scripts.
How do you all feel about this? I’m just depressed it’s even happening. I need my weekly “Office” fix!
11/5: Q100 Bert Show reaches 375,000 goal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It took an extra week, but Q100’s Bert Show managed to hit its goal of 375,000 letters to overseas U.S. troops in time for Thanksgiving.
“I’m hugely relieved,” said Bert Weiss, morning cohost. “This was an incredibly ambitious project and everybody came together.”
Taco Mac provided hundreds of hours of free labor collecting and sorting tens of thousands of letters collected at their restaurants over 17 days. And Pitney Bowes offered to pay the postage.
Last week, when the popular morning show was about 75,000 letters short, Fox News and CNN heard about the effort and aired reports. (This was an unusual situation where a radio station got national press unrelated to a Federal Communications Commission violation or a Don Imus-type snafu.)
The letters will reach not only the troops in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan but those in remote parts of the Pacific and Iceland.
Joel Denver, who runs a radio news Web site www.allaccess.com and has been in the business for 39 years, said any good promotion is “live, local and evokes an emotion. This one is a real warm and caring move.”
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