Nothing To Sell Here The Television Critics Association has canceled its annual January meeting where networks traditionally announce their upcoming schedules. In case you haven’t heard, TV stations don’t have much to promote since the writers strike began, unless you consider American Gladiators reincarnated something to promote, which we don’t. [AP]
Whatev, Got Money For all the talk that late night show hosts are just gesturing by paying their staff through the strike, it's actually costing them an estimated $150,000 to $250,000 a week. In the meantime, CBS and NBC are saving more than $1 million a week by not producing their shows, while still taking in major bank from advertisers on repeats. Looks like this strike thing is really working out.
Jay Leno, what a great guy! The late night host is going to personally pay the salaries of his staff through Christmas. It’s amazing how Carson Daly can cross the picket line and Jay Leno can finance his staff, and they both can still end up looking like tools.
With Heroes and Desperate Housewives officially out of new material (get it? We’re saying that they never had any original material to begin with—zing!) talks resume between the writes and producers after a four day hiatus.
The WGA is expected to give a counteroffer to the producers’ proposal from Thursday. The writers were unhappy with the producers’ offer of a fixed $250 annual residual for online streaming video for one-hour dramas; writers get $20,000 for reruns on TV. CONTINUED »
Every cloud has a silver lining, so we were thrilled to discover that, yes, even the ongoing WGA strike has an upside.
"Before the writer's strike, Chevy Chase's return to Saturday Night Live segment "Weekend Update" was supposed to be a recurring role. "I met with Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers and they hired me," Chase said."
Thanks, WGA! By depriving us of quality television programming, you've also inadvertently spared a no-longer-funny comedian the indignity of proving that he no longer has what it takes. And you've spared us the indignity of having to watch it. [Fox News, via Mediabistro]
Like you, we’re sick of considering the poor Midwesterns who are forced to watch repeats of Dave Letterman because of the writers strike. Let’s be honest, Dave Letterman is not that funny, even with writers. Those Midwesterns should have better late night plans anyway.
But pothead college students, we care about those kids, if only because we’re just like them except with degrees. We also care about the 2008 election; we’re suckers for democracy.
So after many weeks, there’s finally a new angle to the writers’ strike: What are the stoned college kids missing out on now that fake news is in reruns? CONTINUED »
Did you hear the amazing news? The WGA strike is finally over! No, not the one that's depriving you of your favorite quality mindless television and film entertainment. The preemptive one that threatened to jeopardize your ability to watch boring network news shows containing information you already saw on CNN and read on the Drudge Report.
ABC News said yesterday that it reached a tentative new contract with workers represented by the Writers Guild of America East that includes a 3.5 percent wage increase and a one-time signing bonus. The union, comprising approximately 250 news writers, editors, artists and assistants in New York and Washington, D.C., has been working under an expired contract since Jan. 31, 2005.
We'd love to stick around and celebrate, but we happen to be extremely busy and important. And that DVR full of Scrubs and Law & Order reruns isn't going to watch itself.
Even though Broadway got it together last night, the TV writers strike shows no signs of ending. They've been picketing for so long that we’ve resorted to reporting on the New York Times coverage of the Nikki Finke’s blog.
And as the TV writers continue to not write for TV, CBS’s news writers could strike any day. As a precaution, CBS News has canceled the Democratic presidential debates it planned on hosting for December 10.
Here’s an idea, TV writers, news writers and stagehands: When we renegotiating your contract, how about picking different expiration dates? This perfect storm of entertainment strikes has left us with no evening plans.
Back in his TRL days, Carson Daly proved he was good at sucking up to celebrities. Turns out, he’s good at sucking up to executives too.
Daly will be the first late night talk show host to cross the picket line and resume production of Last Call With Carson Daly. The show is taping this week, and will begin airing Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Knowing that he couldn’t come up with jokes himself, The Smoking Gun has obtained an email Daly sent to his friends, family and doctor New York [Ed: If Carson finds doctor humor funny, reruns of The Colbert Report will be more entertaining] asking them call into a joke hotline.
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Man, the Writers Guild of America has been busy lately. Along with organizing the strike that is ruining the evening activities of millions of Americans, they have authorized another work stoppage that would kill the pre-dinner routine of literally thousands of old men. CONTINUED »
As the SNL cast does endearing live performances and writers picket the studios, the WGA and the producers have agreed to return to negotiations on November 26. Hopefully the two parties can get their shit together regarding online residuals, since reading books in lieu of TV is clearly not an option. [AP]
As we approach Thanksgiving, the writers strike shows no signs of ending. The Week in Review, which usually features bits from late night monologues, has resorted to using jokes written in on their humor blog, Laugh Line. Dozens of shows have stopped production, and Lost might not resolve until 2009.
But those hams at SNL did not let the writers’ strike stop them from putting on a show. The cast performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater on Saturday night, while NBC resorted to broadcasting a rerun.
Michael Cera hosted the live act; Amy Poehler invited him earlier in the week via text message. We hope emoticons weren’t necessary to get him to perform. CONTINUED »
So it’s the eleventh day of the strike. After reporting on the new reality TV programming and predicting the rest of the seasons of the shows affected by the strike, we’re all out of angles. So Conan’s in reruns, blah blah blah.
Fortunately, the good people at Pepperdine University conducted a survey about the strike. Thanks for making the story fresh again! CONTINUED »
Well, the pressure is really on the studios now. Today, 21 TV blogs will go un-updated in support of the writers strike. If the literally dozens of people affected by Ducky Does TV.com going down for the day doesn’t convince the producers to settle, we don’t know what will. [TVWeek]
Forget about the networks, who are forced to rebroadcast late night programming and the writers, who are currently out of work. No, they’re not the real victims of the writers strike. Nor are the American people, who very soon will have to resort to reruns for entertainment, or the show runners who are caught in between the writers and the producers.
No, the real victims of the writers strike are the L.A. coffee shops whose clientèle have left them for the picket line.
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For a writers strike, there's certainly a lot to read. While people caught in the middle of this might be busying themselves with Guitar Hero, most people just want to know when The Office will come back on. And updates on the donut status on the picket line is a poor excuse for actual entertainment. Our breakdown on the strike must-reads after the jump.
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These folks earn at least five times your measly salary, but they people on TV who don't. So support 'em.
It’s day three and the writers are still striking.
More shows have stopped production due to the walk out, including Desperate Housewives, Back to You, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Til Death, and Rules of Engagement. At least late night shows won’t feel lonely in repeats.
Producer-writers for Grey’s Anatomy and The Shield have sided with the writers and stopped working. Hillary Clinton, copying Barack Obama, has also endorsed the writers.
Since Americans have never been the type to read the newspaper after work, the networks have planned some high class reality TV to substitute for scripted shows.
After the jump, a preview of the strike season. CONTINUED »
After a lot of talk, the Writers Guild took to the picket line yesterday.
Late night shows went into repeats last night. The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men stopped production. (Actually, the Writers Guild did CBS a favor there.)
In a pro-union gesture, Barack Obama offered his support to the writers guild. Sadly, Obama failed to realize that it’s the unionized factory employees who are really getting screwed by the strike since now they have nothing to do after work. CONTINUED »
Last night, after midnight, writers agreed to strike. Tourists in Midtown, take note: The East coast arm of the Writers Guild is planning to picket Rockefeller Center.
After threatening to strike, saying there wouldn’t be a deal that would avert a strike and promising to go on strike, you would think these writers would come up with a more exciting storyline when they finally went on strike.
Editorial Director
