I’ve had more than enough to do over the holidays, so I haven’t really missed not having fresh TV episodes over the last few weeks. And with a few series launching this week (“Law & Order,” with half the cast new) and next (“Dance War,” “Medium”), I won’t be lacking for entertainment in my small amount of spare time.
But I’ve been following the Hollywood writers’ strike with growing interest, the more I find out about it. It seems clear to me that the writers are fully justified. The networks and studios get money for putting their content online, whether as downloads you pay for or as free streaming video that has commercials, so they shouldn’t be allowed to call it “promotional,” royalty-free content. Good writing is every bit as important as good acting, if not more so — especially when repeated viewings are in question — so the writers should be paid residuals for their creative efforts.
So far, the strike has mostly been a (non)spectator sport for the viewing audience. The only way a person can affect the strike has been to download or stream (which supports the studios) or abstain from their TV addictions (which supports the writers), or to write letters to one side or the other, urging settlement.
Starting tonight, however, there will be a direct competition between writers’ guild supporters and nonsupporters, on the late-night talk shows.
Actually, Carson Daly came back a few weeks ago despite the strike (he says he was told a lot of people on his staff would be fired if he didn’t), but he’s on really late, and had no competition, so it was a little hard to measure the effect.
But tonight (Wednesday), David Letterman and then Craig Ferguson will come back with live shows, with the help of their writers, because Letterman’s production company struck a separate deal with the guild. On the other hand, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel will also be broadcasting live — but they will be writing their own material (although monologues and various other materials will be prohibited by guild rules) and their guests will be crossing the picket lines.
Sure, it might be interesting to see how well the strikebreakers cope without their staff. Some people may tune in to their shows for that reason, or out of habit. But without monologues and other gag bits, and a lot of strike-sympathetic actors apparently planning to shun guest spots on their shows, their ratings will probably suffer increasingly as time passes.
Meanwhile, if you want the strike to end early, in the writers’ favor, you can have a small impact by choosing your late-night viewing based on that, by boycotting the online episodes that currently exploit the writers, and/or by writing to the studios to tell them to be fair.

On the Net:
Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (networks/studios): www.amptp.org
Writers Guild of America, West: www.wga.org
Writers Guild of America, East: www.wgaeast.org

Posted by
Patricia Matson