Comments on: Channel Surfing with C.T.

By: Mel

Mel — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 04:45:13 +0000

American Idol is a guilty pleasure and since I would have watched it regardless of the strike – I will continue to — but I won’t be watching any other reality stuff put up to fill the schedule and break the strike. I hope I’m not alone in this resolve.

By: CT

CT — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:08:01 +0000

To a certain degree, what you’re saying is true. But the fact is that if the show assigned the scripts, writers – knowing the strike was coming and wanting to get a few more paychecks before the big day – would have gladly accepted the assignments. For that matter, Marc Cherry could have written them himself!

Frankly, I’m not so sure that the shows going dark will push anyone back to the table. First, they’ll wait and see how filling the hours with reality programming does. The networks might very well take a “see, we can keep this up for as long as you want.” Because remember, the difference is that the networks will still put programs on the air, whereas the writers won’t… well, have jobs!

By: Tim G.

Tim G. — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:04:23 +0000

Chris’s answer nails it. The studios can ask for more scripts upfront, but why should the writers oblige knowing they’re just trying to work them harder so they have a buffer of scripts available?

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:11:17 +0000

“But surely DH could have — with this much advance notice — prepared enough scripts to get them through the season?”

Why would the DH writers work themselves to the bone to help out the studios prior to the strike? They’re under no obligation to work outside the normal writing/production schedule so there’s definitely no incentive for them to give the studios the added leverage. All these shows going dark will hopefully get both sides back to the negotiation table soon.