The Writers Guild of America is on Strike

On November 5^th the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike. The strike was due to an inability for industry heads to agree to the demands the WGA had pertaining to residual payments for digital media. The last time the WGA went on strike was in 1988. That strike lasted 22 weeks and cost the entertainment industry close to $500 million. What does a strike mean for the everyday television viewer?

The first shows to be affected by the strike will be the evening talk shows. Talk show such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will begin to air reruns before most programs due to the fact that they film their shows a day or two before their air date. Meaning that there are no shows in the reserve. Next the daytime shows like The View and Ellen DeGeneres will be affected. Like soap operas? Then you had better get your fill over the next week because these types of show film only one week in advance.

What most television viewers want to know is what will happen to their favorite prime time shows. Most prime time shows are filmed several weeks in advanced. They usually have four show complete and in the "can" at any given time and also a few scripts completed. This of course doesn't pertain to all programs. According to Stuart Levine of MSNBC.com "...deadline challenged writers such as Aaron Sorkin and David Milch didn't give actors their scripts to the actors to work with until they showed up on set." Meaning that some prime time shows will only have a single episode in reserve. What this basically boils down to is that your favorite show like 24, House, Scrubs or whatever will only be in first run episodes until mid December/early January. On a positive note many shows like NBC's Heroes fearing a strike have been busy filming two shows per week.

If you love reality television then the WGA strike may be the best thing to happen to you as far as television is concerned. While reality television is supposed to be a representation of real life most people known and most networks will concede that the shows are at the very least partially scripted. What is interesting is that the writers for these reality type programs do not fall under the WGA. This means that you can enjoy all the Dancing with the Stars and American Idol that you can stand and most networks will be adding new reality program to their line ups.

Although this strike means that many of the shows that the television viewers enjoy will be in constant reruns it does give one the opportunity to discover shows that they have previously missed.