Writers' Strike Altering TV Schedules
Posted on November 12, 2007
The writers' strike is going to have a huge impact on television. The longer the strike is the bigger the impact will be on television.
Some shows like Desperate Housewives and The Office have already ended production meaning that only the shows that have already been filmed will be aired. Others shows are still in production but they are running out of scripts to produce.
If the strike continues into the spring it could delay the production of next year's shows as well. Lost co-creator and head writer Damon Lindelof wrote in a New York Times op-ed that if the strike is long enough new shows will not be seen until 2009.
If this strike lasts longer than three months, an entire season of television will end this December. No dramas. No comedies. No "Daily Show." The strike will also prevent any pilots from being shot in the spring, so even if the strike is settled by then, you won't see any new shows until the following January. As in 2009. Both the guild and the studios we are negotiating with do agree on one thing: this situation would be brutal.It looks like this could be a long fought battle between writers and the big studios.I will probably be dragged through the streets and burned in effigy if fans have to wait another year for "Lost" to come back. And who could blame them? Public sentiment may have swung toward the guild for now, but once the viewing audience has spent a month or so subsisting on "America's Next Hottest Cop" and "Celebrity Eating Contest," I have little doubt that the tide will turn against us. Which brings me to the second stage of grief: anger.