Married to the Media: The Strike Has Ended: Now What?

 

In both New York and Los Angeles, in-person balloting Tuesday by the WGA East and West members is expected to ratify an agreement ending the writers’ strike, which will have reached its 100th day.

 

It appears that we all will have survived the Great Writers' Strike of 2007/08 and come out on the other side. But what can we expect as fans and viewers? What can we and our clients expect as we begin to plan, and plan to buy, programming for the upcoming season? And what of the remainder of thisseason?

 

Here’s my attempt to answer the FAQs of the writers’ strike aftermath:

 

In any strike, as in most any deal, no one gets 100 percent of what they wanted. But the give and take of this negotiation seems to have gotten pretty close to what most of the writers wanted.

 

The WGA had three primary goals for this agreement. They wanted jurisdiction of new media, and they feel they achieved that goal. They wanted a provision that allowed writers to be paid residuals for written programming streamed on the Internet. As part of the agreement being voted on today, they will receive a flat fee for the first two years of Internet streamed content, and then a 2 percent cut of ad revenues in the third year. This gives writers the opportunity to share in expected profits if online activity grows as many predict it will.

 

The third goal, which was not achieved, was to be allowed to represent writers of reality and animation programming, who are not currently covered by the WGA. The WGA plans to continue efforts to include reality and animation writers, but expect continued resistance. What would nets have fallen back on these past few months if reality and animated shows had not been uncovered and available?

 

Once both votes take place, writers can go back to work immediately; late, late Tuesday night if they want; or for most, Wednesday. An avalanche of spec scripts are expected to land on producers’ desks immediately as show-runners race to get new shows produced and on-air. If these scripts are used to hasten the return of a fave show, they must be genuine spec scripts, not derived from any previous conversations or existing relationships between a WGA writer and a company that was affected by the strike.

 

If not relying on spec scripts to get started, the typical show will probably take a minimum of six weeks to go from concept to completed production of a new episode, which gets us to the beginning of April before we see anything new. Some half-hour sit-coms like The Office or Two and a Half Menmay be able to get on a bit sooner.

 

Most of the top shows are expected to be back between mid-April and early May and to be able to air four to six new episodes. Expect most of these to be aired during or leading into May sweeps. However, some nets may keep some shows on the air into June to shore up viewership and provide content in which to run makegoods. They may also save some for later in the summer or even the fall, in case there is an actors’ strike on June 30that shuts down production AGAIN.

 

Yes, with an agreement after Tuesday’s vote, all systems will be go for the Oscars. Writers will be able to assist in the production of the show, but given the shortened lead time (the Oscars air on ABC Feb. 24), we can expect a stripped down show with fewer elaborate filmed pieces than we’ve seen in the past. (I was hoping for more film montages and fewer dumb production numbers and goofy gags at the podium.) With no picket lines to cross, actors will flood the red carpet as usual and our favorite fashion-dishing extravaganza will go on.

 

In order to speed up the process given the loss of time, many of the nets plan to make their fall order decisions based on “presentations” rather than full pilots. Presentations are shorter than pilots, faster to make and cheaper for the nets who order them, though not that much less costly for the production companies to make. Many nets will go straight to series order without seeing a pilot. We can also expect to see fewer new shows overall, more reality shows making the schedule, and more “bubble” shows from this season getting a next season order than in years past.

 

Expect the upfront presentation to look different this year. There’s talk that the nets might do away with the big mid-May upfront presentations in New York City, replacing them with a road show that travels to the major agencies throughout the spring.

 

 

This strike came just as the ground was shifting underneath the TV biz as we’ve all known it. Many experts agree that repercussions of the strike will be felt for a long time.

 

Viewers were already moving to other delivery systems for their entertainment, including mobile and online, as well as watching less TV overall as other media options compete for what little free time they have. Lacking new programming, many viewers went elsewhere or simply gave up the habit of viewing TV. Many will come back, but it may take a long time and some may like whatever new habits they’ve adopted and never come back.

 

We can expect to continue to see more reality shows on every nets’ schedule. It’s much cheaper to produce than scripted programming and yet they have just as good a chance of becoming a success.

 

We can also expect avails to stay tight and pricing to remain high for all our ad buys, as nets struggle to place makegoods that resulted from the strike. Nets were already dealing with high demand this year, and the upfront and scatter sold briskly. As we get nearer to Election Day, avails both national and local will only tighten.

 

As a fan and viewer, I’m thrilled to see the light at the end of the tunnel and my shows on the way to returning. As a planner, I’m eager to see how the aftermath of this long interruption will reverberate across the remainder of this season, the beginning of next and the seasons and years to come.