Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2007 > December > 12
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
12/12: This writers strike isn’t ending anytime soon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After talks broke off last Friday, it appears both the writers on strike and the producers on the other side are digging in their heels for a long, long winter. The result: reality and game shows will clutter the airwaves and most fresh scripted fare will disappear. So might the viewers, who have already been gradually weaning themselves off broadcast shows anyway. Heck, there hasn’t even been a single new watercooler show among the freshmen class.
ABOVE: NBC’s “The Office” was one of the first shows to run out of fresh episodes once the strike started Nov. 5 and has been in repeats.
So far, the strike has lasted a month and the effect on people watching TV has been minimal. A few shows have run out of episodes including “The Office,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Heroes,” “Big Bang Theory,” “Shark” and “Bionic Woman.” If you want to track how many episodes are left of your favorite shows, TV Guide is doing a good job with the numbers..
The most obvious place where the strike is hurting is late-night TV talk shows. All have been doing repeats, some really old ones (see Leno when he had more black hair!). Only Carson Daly has returned and given his late, late time slot of 1:35 a.m. and basic irrelevance in most people’s minds, who really cares? If this strike drags on a few more weeks, the late-night shows will probably come back in some form as they did during the 1988 strike. The hosts who are currently bankrolling their entire staff can’t do so indefinitely. And even in the case of Comedy Central, which is paying Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s staffs for now, the largess won’t last indefinitely.
Michael Cieply of the New York Times lays out a fairly depressing scenerio.. The writers want more than just higher rates for downloaded TV shows and other digital media. This story makes it clear it’s also a battle about respect, about the writers trying to gain some leverage on the big corporations. The union wants to bring in animation and reality writers not covered by the Writers Guild. They want to be able to join other unions if they choose to strike. (The directors and actors have contracts to renegotiate next year, too.) These are not issues the big guys want to concede on.
Do the writers have enough power to force any real change? Will advertisers balk and viewers flee so fast that Disney and GE and the like will have to concede?
Or will this game of chicken backfire for both sides and simply hasten people away from broadcast TV (which is more affected by the strike in the short term than cable)?
Right now, the writers have done a good job on the PR front, many channeling their pent-up creativity via amusing YouTube videos portraying the big corporations as greedy bastards. But if this strike lasts into the spring and kills pilot season, thus delaying scripted shows in the fall, will the same number of people care enough to go back when “Desperate Housewives” or “24”finally come back? Will people get sick of reality TV to the point that all reality will suffer?
Will people start talking to each other and reading books instead of staring at their 42-inch flat screen four hours a day? Hey, there is a silver lining somewhere in this mess, eh?
