» Showrunners Head to Work Today

- Showrunners Head to Work Today
  
  A post about News by Josh on February 11th, '08
  
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- “Barring some unforeseen cosmic event, it appears that the strike has ended.”
  
  Well, Monday brought good news for writers and bad news for their office coffee makers. Teevieo reported that the strike was near an end earlier this week. Today, there was another good sign. Showrunners headed back to their offices today, as did staff writers who also act as producers. These are the first wave of writers who will try to salvage what is left of the season. A ballot on whether to ratify the new deal, which includes a share of profits from work distributed via the internet, has been sent out to all WGA members. The guild’s two boards have already approved the deal. Barring some unforeseen cosmic event, it appears that the strike has ended.
  
  That leaves us with the question, what did we miss?
  
  Not much, actually. I had to be exposed to the awful second coming of American Gladiators. That hurt, but I managed to change the channel before any permanent damage was done. And I wonder if the strike hurt the chances of up and coming shows like Journeyman. Would it still have gotten the ax if the strike hadn’t occurred? (Answer: Probably. Network execs aren’t known for second chances.) I suppose 24 was the biggest casualty of the strike. Still, Sutherland got his jail time out of the way without disrupting the show. That’s a positive.
  
  Actually, the strike brought us some interesting, if short lived, changes. It was kind of exciting to see Conan and Jay Leno have to work without their writers. They carried their respective late night shows well. Less hyped shows got their chance to see some limelight. Monk and Dexter moved from cable to broadcast. Viewers had a chance to explore some new shows that might have otherwise been forsaken because they fell in the same time-slot as Grey’s Anatomy.
  
  There’s one thing that I’m still not sure what to think about. I found that, even with just basic cable service, you could find an episode of one of the three CSI shows at any hour of any day. I don’t know if that’s a testament to the shows popularity or a sign of the coming apocalypse.
  
  I guess I’m glad that writers think that they got a fair deal. Even if all the grips, camera operators, make-up artists and other people employed by TV shows had to suffer without work for several months and now have to return to their jobs with no greater pay than they had before.
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