Remember that obnoxious writers strike that brought all of Hollywood to a standstill and ruined the spring television season? You might recall one of the main tenants that producers and writers were squabbling about was digital revenues — as in, the writers weren't be compensated very well for the Internet revenues generated from their works. But!, said media companies, there are no digital revenues; DVD sales of TV shows is still where it's at, they claimed, and streaming ad revenues were basically worth pennies.

That was then.

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That's what the writer's strike is estimated to cost California's economy through the end of 2008. Also: 100 days of a silent Hollywood helped the state enter a recession earlier than the rest of us. Score! [Variety]

Whenever something goes awry in pop culture, a reporter must call to arms a panel of experts to explain why. This is what keeps people like Robert Thompson and his ilk employed. So there's David Carr today, rounding up reasons for why primetime shows are not attracting the huge audiences that they did before the writers strike.

Here are a few:

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After all the Nikki Finke-led drama over the writers strike, it turns out television viewers didn't notice, or didn't care. While the networks struggling for original programming, Americans were watching the same amount of TV as ever, claims Nielsen, while increasing the size of their waistbands by amping up the amount of time devoted to DVDs and video games. [THR]

Live from Monday morning, Saturday Night Live is popular again. The first post-strike episode had the show’s highest overnight rating in two years.

Mike Huckabee appeared on “Weekend Update” and poked fun at his impossible chance of becoming the Republican nominee.

Ha, what a kidder. Seriously though, fuck the homos.

To us, the Oscars are just one long tease. We prefer seeing who won the next day and judging what everyone wore in Us Weekly. But if you like meaningless awards and famous people in black tie, there’s no bigger evening.

And after the Super Bowl, there’s no bigger night for advertisers. They’re so glad that the writers resolved their issues so they can tell you about their safety features of their hybrid car:

The settlement of the writers’ strike means the show will proceed as usual — stars, red-carpet fashions and all. That alleviated the fears of more than a dozen blue-chip advertisers, worried that their elaborate — and expensive — marketing plans centered on the Oscars would be disrupted.

“We’re very, very happy the show’s back” to normal, said Aldo Papone, vice president for global advertising at the American Express Company in New York, an Oscar sponsor since 1996.

Surely, the writers are also very, very happy that their small web residuals enabled credit card companies to encourage more debt spending in this country.

Carson Daly, who returned to his day job even though a little thing called "the WGA is on strike" was going on, just received the door prize for having such machismo: NBC is slashing his budget and firing most of his writers. You know, those fellas who were, oh what was it? On strike.

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SPARE The writers strike is officially over. 92.5% of writers agreed to end the strike. The other 7.5% just wanted to continue their vacation. [NYT]

Now that the writers strike is coming to a close – though it's not a done deal yet – and you know what to set your TiVo for and when, and what the industry will look like for the next few weeks, it's time to answer the question on everybody's mind: WHO WON THIS MOTHER F-ER?

Lots of people have lots of different answers.

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If you can barely wait to plop down in front of the TV for some scripted comedy or romance, then you're part of the ideal demographic for this post. After the jump, a round up of what shows are coming back when.

Gossip Girl: As early as this spring.

24: Wait until next year.

Lost: The ultimate teasers, Lost writers aren't sure what will happen after the eight epsidoe mini-season.

Entourage: HBO is hoping for a spring/summer season. There's no reason for a delay. Here's an episode: the guys run into some potential trouble with Ari, Eric worries, Vince settles it, Drama does something stupid, Turtle says something stupid, they all get stoned and Vince gets laid.

The Office: New episodes expected for April.

Friday Night Lights: There's a chance the strike will lead to this show's cancellation.

Family Guy: No new episodes until September. Consolation can be found in old Simpsons episodes.

30 Rock: Best case scenario is new episodes in the fall, there's a possibility of the show getting canceled.

Grey's Anatomy: Will be back before May sweeps.

Ugly Betty: Expected to be brought back by April for six to eight more episodes.

How I Met Your Mother: Likely to return by the spring.

Heroes: New episodes next season.

We don’t know about you, but ever since the writers strike began, we’ve spent our entire weekend refreshing Deadline Hollywood Daily, hoping for news of a resolution. And finally our hours in front of the computer have paid off. The strike was sort of resolved this weekend. Now we can finally do our laundry!

We say sort of because the Writers Guild still needs to vote to approve the settlement, which they will likely do on Tuesday. As requested, writers will get a percentage of internet revenue. But does this have to do with the price of tea in China?

Well, for one, the Oscars will go on as scheduled on February 24. The TV season is still a bit screwed, though.

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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.

BELIEVE IN MAKE BELIEVE? The writers strike could be resolved by the end of the next week. Could this annoying predicament really be over? Well, the WGA is presenting new terms to the producers this weekend and word on the street is that producers are going to accept. Getting new episodes of the ever culturally important Grey’s Anatomy could take up to eight weeks. Henry Ford was right: Unionization is bad for this country. [AdAge]

Every day the WGA and the producers are like, “No, we’re getting close. Keep watching TV. We’ll have new programming soon.” And every day nothing happens, except American Idol is more inexplicably popular than ever.

And with the Academy Awards only a few weeks away, things need to get settled if People wants to run its standard 40 pages of Oscar Glamour spread. Writers are threatening to picket, and you know actors. They’ll do coke in public, but crossing a picket line will ruin their reputation.

But now it doesn’t matter if the Oscars go on, because its raison d'être has been abandoned. In sympathy with the striking writers, Vanity Fair has canceled its party.

“There will be something sort of liberating about ordering Chinese food and watching the Oscars in bed,” Graydon Carter said.

Well put. Now stars really will be like us. Except we prefer pizza.

First they were closer. Then they were further. Now they’re closer again.

The WGA and the producers had “a good day” on Friday, which means … well, who the fuck knows? It seems like everyone involved in reaching this agreement is a writer on Lost because every time they approach a resolution, someone runs their mouth and we’re right back where we started.

Of course, with the writers strike, people complain that there’s nothing on their DVR. But just a few months ago, everyone was complaining that there was too much on their DVR. It’s such a tough life for the premium cable inclined.

Anyway, if the strike is resolved that means the Oscars. Other than the fashion round-ups, the Oscars are pretty inane. So instead of the awards, how about this:

Congratulations everyone who works in Hollywood. You're great. If your parents don't respect you, they really should. You're creating fine art. Well done.