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The strike IS happening. :(
Topic Started: Nov 1 2007, 11:10 PM (4,655 Views)
juniorz1
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The Royal Stoner

Any chance they'll hire non-union writers to work in the interim? That's what they did in the 80s I believe- it's what got Donna Swajeski her job at AW and she became one of the most successful scribes to pen that show.
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~bl~
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This sucks...last I heard they would start only on Monday at the earliest. They said that actors need to honor their contracts in one report, and should go to work. They can picket along with the writers on their free time or days off from work.

GL was taping end of November/December at the beginning of October per reports from the GLFC weekend which was Columbus Day weekend. They are better off than some of the shows that only have 2-3 weeks in advance. (Also they if desperate could pad with more volunteer clips.)

Days and ATWT being so close to tape scare me a lot more...

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DrewHamilton
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Maybe if they do hire new writers to come in, writers that aren't part of the union, that may be the way to get new blood into daytime. As Greg point out, it worked before.
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Ponz
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Isn't there a major conflict of interest within the WGA? Those who write for primetime blockbusters have much to gain from striking but the majority of writers will be totally screwed by this. Alternative revenue sources are one of the key incentives that networks have to keep struggling shows on the air. Forcing them to pay residuals to writers is another reason for them to replace scripted dramas with cheaper, non-scripted alternatives. If the WGA are successful, the net result will be more money going to fewer writers and hundreds of others losing their jobs.
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Y&RWorldTurner
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Sharongate, bitches!

When the #3 soap is getting a 2.3 rating, I don't see how a Writer's Strike is going to keep soaps afloat. The soaps are going to suffer like hell through this, no matter how short the strike is. None of these shows can afford to lose more viewers than they've already lost this year.

What a shame...
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bellcurve
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juniorz1
Nov 2 2007, 11:41 AM
Any chance they'll hire non-union writers to work in the interim? That's what they did in the 80s I believe- it's what got Donna Swajeski her job at AW and she became one of the most successful scribes to pen that show.

Aren't people in the DGA and SAG being encouraged by their own guilds not to cross picket lines?

Was Swajeski a complete outsider or was she an actor/director/producer? Unless it was a complete outsider to daytime TV, I just don't see how we'll get any of the actors or directors or EPs(if they are under DGA) to write and develop scripts.

Pulling the soaps off the air could be a pre-emptive move...if DGA strike or the SAG strike, regardless of whether or not the writers are on strike, the soaps could still be fucked. Can't have a soap opera without actors.

I wonder what sports programming will replace the soaps? Will college basketball games be moved from syndication(ala Jefferson Pilot) to network TV and played in the afternoon?! I bet that would draw in HUGE ratings from college kids between classes, but would kill soaps. I mean, absolutely KILL soaps!

Can a basketball game pre-playoffs be played in the afternoon?! Is there a NCAA rule against it?

Does anyone have ratings info for any of the games in "The Road to the Final Four"?

I can see CBS suspending its programming to cover more College Basketball than ever before.
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Sephora
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dawn9476
Nov 2 2007, 12:12 PM
NBC wouldn't have to expand the Today show to be on all day because you still have talk shows like Dr. Phil, Ellen, and Rachel Ray that will still go on because they don't have writers. NBC only has to worry about Days. All the other hours belong to the affiliates and syndicated programing like talk shows, game shows, and entertainment news shows that don't have writers affiliated with the WGA.

None of the shows you mentioned are NBC shows in our area. The only talk show on NBC in our market is Martha. The rest are Fox and CBS. They also have contracts with certain stations. We have the Today show, Martha Stewart, local news, paid programming, Access Hollywood, game shows, news, news, and more news. No "talk" shows like Phil or Rachel. That's why I can see the Today show expanding. They also say reality is about all that will be left if scripts run out.
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bellcurve
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Ponz
Nov 2 2007, 12:13 PM
Alternative revenue sources are one of the key incentives that networks have to keep struggling shows on the air. Forcing them to pay residuals to writers is another reason for them to replace scripted dramas with cheaper, non-scripted alternatives. If the WGA are successful, the net result will be more money going to fewer writers and hundreds of others losing their jobs.

You make a GREAT point, but also keep in mind the WGA is asking for reality show writers to be protected under their guild as well.

Writers from AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL walked off the job after they were denied WGA status for their work.

The WGA also asked for its members to boycott Fremantle Media(Production Company behind AMERICAN IDOL and the Goodson-Toddman lot, including THE PRICE IS RIGHT) after writers from the gameshow TEMPTATION claimed they were overworked and underpaid and were not given WGA status.

Just about everything in Entertainment is protected by the WGA. Your gameshows like JEOPARDY!, even the writing for some parades is protected under the WGA.

TV, as we know it, is so finished! ETA: Okay....that was a little melodramatic.

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None of the shows you mentioned are NBC shows in our area. The only talk show on NBC in our market is Martha. The rest are Fox and CBS. They also have contracts with certain stations. We have the Today show, Martha Stewart, local news, paid programming, Access Hollywood, game shows, news, news, and more news. No "talk" shows like Phil or Rachel. That's why I can see the Today show expanding. They also say reality is about all that will be left if scripts run out.


NBC was the syndication company behind STARTING OVER. They could easily replace DAYS with a resurrected version of this show. But going with a 5th Hour of TODAY seems to be the more likely option.
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OneBadKitty
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Okay, then I'll be melodramatic: I think we could be in big trouble. :unsure:
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Steve Frame
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I think the expansion of the Today show is a given anyway. Ratings have been holding steady for it from the last report I saw. I recently saw ratings for the Knoxville area and the only soaps doing good in that area is still just Y&R. The highest rated shows in the big Knoxville viewing area is (for daytime) is The Price Is Right, followed by the local news, and Y&R. They said the only show that comes near is the Today Show.

Y&R is still getting near 7's many days in the Knoxville area the newspaper article said.

They reported all this in an article about the Tennessee/Alabama football game which got a 26 HH rating in the Knoxville area.

I don't know what the strike is going to do, but I keep saying it over and over and over - the networks are killing soaps themselves. The strike is just the icing on the cake. Look at the shows PIR and Y&R. What do they have in common? Simple - they appeal to older viewers who are home each day. The Today Show does too.

The 18-34 and the 18-49 viewers aren't home that much during the day anymore. But yet daytime still sets that as their key audience. Look at who is home more now. Retirees. Soaps no longer offer them anything. Even the staid and true old P&G soaps don't anymore.

Is it a fluke that Days finally features someone like Deidre Hall and the ratings go up. Viewers want the familiar but they want characters they can identify with too.

Until TPTB realize then soaps are dead anyway. Without the strike it is just a slow agonizing death - giving them time to resuscitate, do CPR and hopefully revive it. The strike is just speeding things up.

Unless someone in the business gets an epiphany and wakes up. With the morons we have running each soap, I don't see that happening.
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IMissAremid
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After all... tomorrow is another day!

I think it's jumping the gun expecting college basketball games to be what replaces soaps. There's no way they are going to be able to move the time of the basketball games to mid-day and inconvenience the thousands of fans who attend these games live just to fill in lost programming time from this writer's strike.

When there is talk about sports programming filling up the afternoon time slots I'm thinking more like the sort of stuff you'd see on the old wide world of sports, like pre-taped figure skating programs and skiing and gymnastics and dirt bike racing and crap like that or even nowadays maybe poker tournaments. I suppose in ABC's case they could re-air some college football/basketball games that aired the previous night on espn as they sometimes repackage those to re-air them latenight on espn but I'm not sure about them doing that. I do think ABC would be the network most likely to utilize sports stuff because they own ESPN, although I'd think they'd also have disney programming to choose from and could show disney movies or something.

I am not anticipating the Today show to expand into a fifth hour just because NBC only has one hour of time to fill and given they have so much other stuff from their family of networks in CNBC and MSNBC to choose from that I don't think it would be really necessary for them to produce something new. In NBC's case I'm guessing we could have some MSNBC documentaries or stuff like that airing instead of DOOL. I mean they have a ton of those dateline and to catch a predator specials plus stuff from their "doc blocks" on msnbc.

I have no idea what the hell CBS will do. Maybe they could air reruns 48 hours mysteries and stuff like that? Even if they do sports stuff there's no way I see it winding up being live sporting events like college basketball.
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Y&RWorldTurner
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Sharongate, bitches!

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2007/11/strike-its-a-re.html

Strike could be a reality by Monday — so expect more reality TV
Nov 2, 2007, 01:41 PM | by Lynette Rice

Categories: Movie Biz, Strike, TV Biz

A month ago, when Hollywood was in full hand-wringing mode over the potential of a writer's strike, a William Morris agent confidently declared that such a decision "would defy logic." No reasonable professional would dare to strike in the midst of a television season, right?

Wrong.

Less than 12 hours after their contract expired at midnight on Oct. 31, some 2,000-plus writers assembled in the Los Angeles Convention Center to hear union leaders declare that a strike will occur; the only question now is when. Many believe the picket lines could begin forming as early as this afternoon (at least, that's what some New York-based scribes were led to believe based on an earlier meeting), but the common wisdom is that the Writers Guild of America will inform writers to start waving the placards Monday morning, unless, of course, an 11th-hour deal is hammered out over the weekend. The goal now is to recruit some of the guild's more recognizable faces to walk the picket line, though it seems unlikely the WGA will drag Conan O'Brien out in front of 30 Rock in New York. They might, however, be able to convince 30 Rock creator Tina Fey to wave a sign or two.

As dense as some of the negotiation-speak may seem (what's all this talk about credit and separate rights, anyway?) the writers' complaints are pretty simple: every time you catch an episode of Desperate Housewives on ABC.com, creator/writer Marc Cherry (or his fellow DH scribe, who may have written that particular epsiode) doesn't get paid for it. Every time a series writer generates new content for his show's official Web page, he doesn't get paid for it. The writers also want a bigger piece of DVD profits (6 percent, up from 3 percent), so if you decide to, say, buy season one of Heroes on DVD, the scribes would get more money in their residual checks. That's what this dispute is about, give or take a few disagreements over credit and pensions and such.

So what does it mean for viewers if the strike begins Monday? Late night shows could immediately go into reruns, if David Letterman and Jay Leno decide not to write their own shows (though Letterman and Johnny Carson did this back in 1988). Cable yakkers like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report could also shut down. SNL may be forced to go black, airing repeats instead.

As for series television, most shows have about six-to-eight weeks worth of episodes written and in the can waiting to be shot, which will carry the networks through January, maybe early February. Writers who also hold the title of producer can continue to come to the set, they just can't do any kind of writing. For instance, if Jason Lee's joke falls flat during the taping of My Name is Earl, creator Greg Garcia would have to just let it go. The only sticking point that may interrupt ongoing production is if the Teamsters (i.e., the folks who drive all those production trucks) live up to their promise to not cross the picket line, which would force shows to simply go dark. If that's the case, expect even more new reality shows to debut in the next few months. "We'll be ready," says one Big Four network executive. "This is what we get paid to do. We've anticipated this for months, though honestly I thought they'd resolve it. How stupid can they be?"

As for the impact in daytime, soaps generally have about four weeks worth of episodes in the can. Once the nets burn though those originals, expect compilations of classic episodes (Victor and Nikki's first wedding! Luke and Laura reconcile — for the second time!) News programs, as well as syndicated shows like The Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy, will not be affected. As for cable series, most shows, like The Shield and Nip/Tuck, were shot months in advance so there will be no impact — unless the strike is a long one.

"It's emotion transcending logic," opines another network executive. "Obviously, they're thinking they need to strike. But this isn't like the striking garment workers. We work alongside these people every day. A lot of us are friends. We golf together. It's so weird."
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bellcurve
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Quote:
 
I think it's jumping the gun expecting college basketball games to be what replaces soaps. There's no way they are going to be able to move the time of the basketball games to mid-day and inconvenience the thousands of fans who attend these games live just to fill in lost programming time from this writer's strike.

When there is talk about sports programming filling up the afternoon time slots I'm thinking more like the sort of stuff you'd see on the old wide world of sports, like pre-taped figure skating programs and skiing and gymnastics and dirt bike racing and crap like that or even nowadays maybe poker tournaments. I suppose in ABC's case they could re-air some college football/basketball games that aired the previous night on espn as they sometimes repackage those to re-air them latenight on espn but I'm not sure about them doing that. I do think ABC would be the network most likely to utilize sports stuff because they own ESPN, although I'd think they'd also have disney programming to choose from and could show disney movies or something.

Even if they do sports stuff there's no way I see it winding up being live sporting events like college basketball.


Good point. I didn't even think about ticket sales, etc. That makes a lot of sense to me.

Quote:
 
As for the impact in daytime, soaps generally have about four weeks worth of episodes in the can. Once the nets burn though those originals, expect compilations of classic episodes (Victor and Nikki's first wedding! Luke and Laura reconcile — for the second time!)


This makes me excited just thinking about it. Some truly classic B&B would rock. Like 87 B&B.

Will probably get higher ratings too!

I'm just shocked they haven't mentioned scabs as an option.
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bellcurve
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I'll take classics or news stories anyday over this guy writing for a soap opera...he may be good at writing for PASSIONS. LOL.

Alex Perez: Hollywood Scab Writer

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OneBadKitty
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It's not just the ticket sales - there's classes to consider too. I can see them re-running west coast games that normally aren't televised (like University of Hawaii). There's also college bowl games coming up, figure skating, etc.

But I hope they go with the classic episodes! People will certainly tune in while waiting for their soaps to resume. Who knows, maybe the strike will be resolved before the effects of it are felt in daytime.
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Mason


I'd love to see some classic episodes, but I seriously doubt that will happen (at least for my soaps). :(
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PhoenixRising05
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I could go for classic episodes but would NBC do that? They seem to despise soaps so I could see them just re-running primetime sitcoms or dramas or something.

Soapnet would probably do the classic episodes for Days though and everyone else.

Hopefully, this is settled before the effects are felt on daytime. Some mentioned Days only being two weeks ahead. They are two week ahead in taping but they probably are much further ahead in writing scripts and stories. For example, Ashley Holland, the winner of IWTBASS, is coming on December 26 so they must have that all prepared.

I think the soaps will have until like January before this affects them and I think primetime has until end of January/February. Hopefully, it all works out by then.
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kserox10


:(
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Angie79
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Royal Reporter

Breaking News
Writers Strike Update

On Thursday night, the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were unable to come to terms. If no agreement is reached — on issues such as residuals and distribution of shows — then writers are expected to go on strike starting Monday. What will this mean for daytime? Soap operas have been working to stockpile at least several weeks' worth of scripts in anticipation of a potential strike. The last writers' strike, in 1988, which ran for five months, did not result in a hiatus for soaps, however, without experienced script writers many suffered in quality. At first most stories were dragged out for as long as possible, then plots lurched forward that did not leave shows in the best of shape. This strike hits soap operas harder than other TV shows because prime-time shows can run repeats and daytime cannot. As GH Head Writer Robert Guza, Jr. said to Digest in the 11/6 issue, "There is definitely concern for how daytime would survive a long-lasting strike."

http://www.soapoperadigest.com/news/breaking/
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Q Steph
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Put your hands up for Obama

juniorz1
Nov 2 2007, 11:41 AM
Any chance they'll hire non-union writers to work in the interim? That's what they did in the 80s I believe- it's what got Donna Swajeski her job at AW and she became one of the most successful scribes to pen that show.

That's what I want to know. I'll sign up in a mili second.
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