Writers Guild Strike: Any Effect Yet?

Just one week into the Writers Guild of America strike (prompted by a disagreement over royalty payments) it has yet to send shivers down the spine as was expected. No doubt, the strike is bad news for all the small businesses that depend on Hollywood to keep running, but no one seems to care.

The American TV viewers are getting through the situation in one way or the other, as most of them haven’t even finished watching the DVDs of Sex and the City, let alone 24 or Desperate Housewives. Instead of being a cause of alarm, the strike has given TV viewers a rare opportunity to catch up with past episodes.

But it seems like there is light at the end of the tunnel as California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, claims to be on the case who of course has some Hollywood experience:-)

Writers Guild of America set for strike

The Writers Guild of America is poised for an industry strike from Monday, November 5 following three and a half months of negotiations over compensation for web content and higher residuals for DVD sales.

What does that mean for your favorite TV shows? Well, it if is anything like the last writers’ strike in 1988, the industry will be severely affected. The strike delayed the TV season after the writers’ stopped working for 22 weeks.

If Monday's scheduled strike continues, late night TV shows like “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Late Show with David Letterman” and Jon Stewart’s popular “The Daily Show” will be sent into re-runs, as they all require monologue and script writing. Daytime soaps will be forced into repeats within the month. And if the strike continues into 2008? Hmm, prime time viewing will be affected, as the episodes already filmed run out.

Nick Counter, President of the Producers Alliance said the Writers Guild's call for a strike was "precipitous and irresponsible." Yet he held out some hope that a deal could be reached: "Our goal continues to be to reach a fair and reasonable agreement that will keep the industry working", he said.

Already, informal behind-the-scenes talks have been begun between high-level members of the writers' negotiating committee and the studio and network executives they work for. The committee is headed by comedy writer John F. Bowman ("Saturday Night Live") and includes such top writer-producers as Neal Baer ("Law & Order: Special Victims Unit") and Marc Cherry ("Desperate Housewives").

Another high-profile member of the committee, Carlton Cuse, an executive producer of "Lost," confirmed Friday that members of the guild and the negotiating committee were having "back-channel" meetings with leaders of the alliance.