TV or not TV… ?
A quote from Shakespeare I think, but the basic idea behind it is that a dark hour is upon us. The Writers Guild of America is going to strike, immediately. At stake is a slightly higher portion of DVD (from 4 cents per disc to 8 cents) and new (online) media sales. A total amount of under $100 million a year (divided over some 12.000 writers), that the industry is not willing to budge on (earning $24.4 billion last year alone on domestic DVD sales, so we’re talking about a total of less than %1).
Last time this happened was in 1988 (a 22 week duration), and it left me scarred. For instance, Star Trek: The Next Generation has a 2 month season premiere delay, and produced The Child (a recycled script from ST: Phase II) and the most horrible episode ever in Star Trek history, flashback clip show Shades of Gray. So deservingly, the industry lost an estimated $500 million income (less advertisement sold, 10% declined viewership). And I wasn’t a savvy TV watcher back then anyway.
But now that I am, the direct impact will be:
– Immediately, no more late night shows. Colbert, Jay, Conan, they’ll be off the air, as late night shows depend the most on writers.
– Soon, no more sitcoms, as they rely a lot on on-set rewrites.
– No nicely finished TV seasons. Most shows have some 5 episodes in the post production pipeline, and maybe a few scripts ready to shoot. But come Jan/Feb 2008, it’s bye bye scripted television, hello news, game and reality shows.
– Canceled new running shows. Good shows with low ratings will never get a chance to grow into surprise hit shows.
– Canceled new upcoming shows. Heroes: Origin seems to be a victim already, put on indefinite hold before scripts have been written (but promised to advertisers a few months ago, to lure in advertisement money for a mid 2008 launch)
– If the strike takes long enough, say goodbye to pilot season. Next year will run on current shows, including the horrible ones that should’ve been axed.
Are you as scared as I am ?
Update: It was unclear what multitalented actors/writers/producers/directors would do during the strike (since their added SGA/DGA allegiance), but big names like J.J. Abrams, James L. Brooks and Tina Fey joined the picket lines, while stars like Jay Leno and Julia Louis-Dreyfus showed up for support.
Update2: Next victim: 24. No 7th season for this TV season (about 1/3 filmed though). Fox bets on safe and moves it to the next TV season.