Over the past week, there’s been a lot of talk about the writers strike being nearly over. Which would be great, because people like scripted television and honestly, American Gladiators is kind of retarded.

But before we count our chickens before they’re hatched or reprogram our DVRs, let’s keep it real with ourselves: an agreement hasn’t been made yet.

If you read past the first few graphs of excitement about a renewed TV seasons, you get the facts:

But interviews with more than a dozen people involved in the possible settlement described a process so fragile that many still think that Saturday’s meetings could derail it.

As recently as last Friday, producers were preparing a “doomsday scenario,” in which they were ready to declare that the talks had failed, opening the possibility of an extended strike.

And even if the strike is resolved this weekend, the networks can’t afford to pretend the last three months of canceled programming didn’t happen:

"It's not just flipping a switch and having everything come right back on," said Barry Jossen, executive vice president of production for ABC Studios. "There are a lot of factors and considerations that go into these decisions. We are trying to determine the amount of material that was finished before the strike started, the creative status of the show and the broadcast schedule needs."

So even if the writers strike ends this week, which it may not, the search for the next American Gladiator is sadly not over.