Today launched the beginning of the Writers Guild of America strike. Starting at 12:01 A.M. Pacific time on November 5, 2007, writers began to take their stand against what they feel are low and unfair wages.
As it stands right now, television and film writers do not make enough profit on DVD sales or for media that they wrote and produced that are downloaded via the Internet. Negotiations failed as writers requested double the pay that they receive for these sales and the strike ensued.
Tonight, viewers across America will notice that reruns of the Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman and Conan O’Brien are airing and depending on how long the strike lasts, other shows are sure to follow. In addition, Last Call with Carson Daly, the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report.
Currently, most television shows have enough episodes produced to hold them over until roughly January or February. The shows that depend heavily upon daily writers are first to suffer, late night talk shows. If the strike continues for a month, soap operas will be the next shows to move to reruns.
Many shows have been on alert to the writers strike and have been busy accumulating enough scripts to hold them over during the strike. However, late night talk shows writers create new scripts every day, that is why they are the first to be affected and undoubtedly will be hit the hardest.
Other talk shows will also feel the sting of the strike, however Ellen Degeneres has said that she has filmed new episodes before the strike began and Oprah Winfrey does not use writers from the Writers Guild so her show will not be affected.
Reality television programs will fare the best throughout the duration of the strike. Programs like American Idol do not utilize guild writers and if the strike continues for several months, American Idol and the Fox network may enjoy overwhelming success at the other networks loss.
The picketing took place today in front of major network studios in California. Picketers demonstrated in front of CBS Radford Studios, CBS Television City, Culver Studios, Disney Studios, Fox Studios, Hollywood Center Studios, NBC Burbank, Prospect Studios, Paramount Studios/ Raleigh Studios Hollywood, Raleigh Studios Manhattan Beach, Sony Pictures Studios, Sunset Gower Studios, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers Studios.
The writers are aiming to change the way their contracts are written. Currently, there is no real provision for writers to earn residual income when their work is streamed over the Internet. It would seem that with the major networks now playing television series online that they would have been willing to work this out with the writers. However, negotiations have failed. It is understandable that the writers want to ensure that they receive their fair share of the Internet media business. The last time negotiations were made on behalf of the writers guild was in 1988, before the Internet, DVDs, or Ipods began to reshape the way people view media.
[...] You are probably aware that the Writers Guild of America is on strike. If you aren’t aware, you may have been wondering why late night talk shows are in reruns, now you know. The Writers Guild of America has been on strike and they have stopped writing for major networks and many favorite television shows. As of date, there is no sign that the strike is going to end soon and because of this, many shows are soon to stop airing new material and will simply be in reruns. [...]
Pingback by Ellen Degeneres: The Show Must Go On — November 15, 2007 @ 7:41 am