Hollywood writers set to strike on Monday

[JadedRaverLA]

Well, everyone in Hollywood has been expecting it for awhile, but WGA's negotiating committee announced its strike recommendation today, with an expected start date of Monday.

While not directly related to Blu-ray, the effect this will have on TV, movies, etc, could be far-reaching.

To start with, expect late night shows, such Leno, Letterman, Conan, The Daily Show, the Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live, etc, to all go into repeats starting Monday. This could last for many weeks to months. The late night shows may come back before the end of the strike, though the hosts are members of the guild, so they likely couldn't write monologues or other material.

Other scripted TV shows will be effected shortly, with most shows having 4-5 episodes ready to air. More episodes have been written, but without having writers on-set for rewrites, and the prospect of crossing picket lines, it's unlikely production companies will decide to continue shooting episodes... unless the strike continues for a considerable time.

And on the film side of things, studios have 50 or so scripts "ready to shoot," during the strike, though they would have to do without a WGA writer on-set to make changes on-the-fly.

In the end, this will be bad for everyone. Consumers will have less scripted entertainment options (and likely what options remain will be of lower quality), and we'll all be seeing more "Event TV" and reality shows on the airwaves in the coming months. Production companies, TV networks, and studios all stand to lose a lot of money if the strike continues for some time. TV networks will be hit the hardest (as they were in the 22 week WGA strike back in 1988), and may never completely recover (networks saw a 10% erosion in audience numbers post-strike in 1988). And everyone else who works in Hollywood will be seeing less work, less pay, and potentially significant layoffs.

Hopefully, they'll reach an agreement on a new contract soon, but for now, it's going to be some dark times ahead.

If you want to know more check out this article from Variety.