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Could another writers strike be imminent?

J

johnnya2k6

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/29/media/writers-strike-wga-2017/


Ratings for "The Walking Dead" and this year's Oscars have plummeted (the latter not as low as in 2003); and with their ratings on the rise, "Saturday Night Live" recently announced that for the first time in its history, the last four episodes of the season will be LIVE everywhere, including Alaska and Hawaii. They'll return on April 15, but unless if they work things out soon...it may be their premature season finale.

But if they go on strike again, at least we have Netflix, Hulu (those two, Amazon Video, and YouTube didn't have any original content the last strike in 2007-08), and all those subchannels for alternatives. At least this is not 1979 (when the two-month ITV strike left them the BBC and nothing but if you were in Britain...unless if you were in the Channel Islands), 1980, or 1988.
 
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By the way...I just want to clarify that the 2003 Oscars (which was during the Iraq War) had 31 million viewers, but 40 million tuned in to the "Joe Millionaire" finale the month before.

And the 2008 Oscars -- in which there were no American acting winners -- narrowly held off the "American Idol" finale by a couple million viewers; that show thanks to the last writers strike and Super Bowl 42 -- which saw the New England Patriots's perfect season not to be -- helped Fox become the #1 network for the first time in its history (CBS would get it back the next season).
 
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the ratings for Walking Dead are on a decline for a reason, one thing was, they killed off two characters in a very violent in graphic manner for basic cable. it was HBO style violence that aired on the season premiere when a character called Negan killed a the characters of Glenn and Abraham using a barbed wire warped baseball bat nicknamed Lucile. and the other reason is people are getting tired of slow burning building up to big key episodes/moments by doing episodes where they have separate focus on certain characters. and it's kinda disorganized at times.

now on the writers strike topic itself, a writers strike nearly 10 years after a huge one is a big bad blow to TV and Movies. the worst victims of the 2007-2008 writers strike was Late Night TV. the biggest winners were Reality TV, Pro Wrestling and sports and News shows as well as repeats too.
 
with more states becoming right to work, why don't they just hire scab writers from those places? or do even writers have to be in LA or NY when they could just keep production in those places and move writers to someplace like Atlanta or Austin or even back to Orlando?
 
The Writers aren't doing themselves any favors if they decide to strike. I don't think the offer they have been provided is unreasonable.
 
danderson6500 said:
I wonder if the networks might put on more sports. ABC might expand their NBA coverage or NBC might do the same thing with the NHL.
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Reality shows are cheaper and draw more viewers in advertiser-desirable demographics (young, female). The whole reality thing got its kick start decades ago during a writers' strike. History has a way of repeating.
 
nomadcowatbk said:
with more states becoming right to work, why don't they just hire scab writers from those places? or do even writers have to be in LA or NY when they could just keep production in those places and move writers to someplace like Atlanta or Austin or even back to Orlando?
Click to expand...

"Scabs" are strike breakers. Not non-union workers.
 
One of the few scripted series to continue during the 80's writers strike was
the second incarnation of Mission: Impossible (which was produced in Australia).

Most likely we'll see plenty of clip shows like World's Wildest Security Camera Videos
and the like.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
One of the few scripted series to continue during the 80's writers strike was
the second incarnation of Mission: Impossible (which was produced in Australia).

Most likely we'll see plenty of clip shows like World's Wildest Security Camera Videos
and the like.
Click to expand...

I remember ABC having baseball during the 88 writers strike, so that helped a little bit.
 
A short strike (1-2 months) wouldn't be as bad as the last one as most shows probably have completed (or will complete) writing and shooting their seasons. However, it could affect the start of next season slightly.
 
The last time a writers strike took place there was lots of emphasis on how Late Night shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel Live would end up canceled if the Writers Guild of America did not resolve their contract dispute with the studios and production companies.
 
ftballfan said:
A short strike (1-2 months) wouldn't be as bad as the last one as most shows probably have completed (or will complete) writing and shooting their seasons. However, it could affect the start of next season slightly.
Click to expand...

A bigger issue is that the OTA networks from CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox down to CW are already seeing vastly diminished shares compared to a decade or so ago. Without attractive prime time product, viewers will resort to cable channels, on demand and things like NetFlix and Hulu.

While many of the paid models like NetFlix and Amazon Prime have a flow of new content, there is so much available that is already in the can that viewers can easily weather a long writers' strike. The problem is that once viewers alter their habits, it is hard to get them back. And, ultimately, that effects the largest sources of union member employment for scripted content.

The writers should be careful what they ask for as they could force networks to either reduce scripted content or move more writing and production offshore. It's not as if there is a shortage of English language writers outside the US who can easily do a variety of scripted shows. Maybe not the night show topical dialogues, but most everything else.

Or worse, we get new reality shows. We'd see "Real Dogs of Rome" given the greenlight, with filming alternating between Rome, NY, Rome, GA, and Roma, TX.
 
DavidEduardo said:

The writers should be careful what they ask for as they could force networks to either reduce scripted content or move more writing and production offshore. It's not as if there is a shortage of English language writers outside the US who can easily do a variety of scripted shows. Maybe not the night show topical dialogues, but most everything else..
Click to expand...

So true. There are newspapers here in the US that have their copy editing done in India. The cost savings outweigh the occasional embarrassments of butchered local references.
 
DavidEduardo said:


A bigger issue is that the OTA networks from CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox down to CW are already seeing vastly diminished shares compared to a decade or so ago. Without attractive prime time product, viewers will resort to cable channels, on demand and things like NetFlix and Hulu.

While many of the paid models like NetFlix and Amazon Prime have a flow of new content, there is so much available that is already in the can that viewers can easily weather a long writers' strike. The problem is that once viewers alter their habits, it is hard to get them back. And, ultimately, that effects the largest sources of union member employment for scripted content.

The writers should be careful what they ask for as they could force networks to either reduce scripted content or move more writing and production offshore. It's not as if there is a shortage of English language writers outside the US who can easily do a variety of scripted shows. Maybe not the night show topical dialogues, but most everything else.

Or worse, we get new reality shows. We'd see "Real Dogs of Rome" given the greenlight, with filming alternating between Rome, NY, Rome, GA, and Roma, TX.
Click to expand...

That could mean more "reality" shows. God help us.
 
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