2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike

[Hurmoth]

I am curious to see how Leno and Conan will perform tonight since they will have no material to work with.

I'm very interested in that as well. I'm going to DVR Leno and Conan tonight and watch Letterman to see how they all do since it has been so long since their departure from the air.

[Viserov]

I'm very interested in that as well. I'm going to DVR Leno and Conan tonight and watch Letterman to see how they all do since it has been so long since their departure from the air.

I watched the first part of Conan, and given the circumstances, he did pretty well. I laughed quite a few times.

[spenser.d]

Both Leno and Conan seem to be doing decently well, considering.

Dunno how long they'll be able to last doing impromptu every night, though.

-Spenser

[Rob2687]

Conan's head looks even more cartoonishly gigantic with the strike beard. The show was still funny though. Leno was boring as usual.

[SuperJediMedia]

Anybody found clips of Jay Leno and Conan yet?

[CUBBYJR2005]

I dvr leno and letterman and lettermen was the best out of those two and no I didnt care to see conan or the late late show on cbs or carsons daily show on nbc.

[Hurmoth]

I dvr leno and letterman and lettermen was the best out of those two and no I didnt care to see conan or the late late show on cbs or carsons daily show on nbc.

Letterman was better because his writers were back, but Leno was pretty good from what I saw.

Robin Williams was hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing.

[Rappy Veteran]

Variety reports that Fox is bracing for a lengthy Writers Guild strike by tweaking its midseason schedule.

Newcomers "New Amsterdam" and "Canterbury's Law," which had initially been given premieres on Friday night -- arguably Fox's weakest -- will now bow in safer Monday-night slots in spring.

Fox has also added several Thursday-night installments of "American Idol" and will hold back the new reality entry "When Women Rule the World," most likely until summer.

Besides "Amsterdam" and "Canterbury's Law," Fox is bowing new scripted series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," "Unhitched" and "The Return of Jezebel James" in midseason.

As scheduled, Mondays will consist of "Prison Break" and "Terminator" until the end of February; both "Terminator" and the second half of "Prison Break's" third season premiere Jan. 14. "Prison Break" airs its final episode on Feb. 18, a special "Moment of Truth" runs on Feb. 25, and the two-hour "Terminator" finale airs on March 3.

Then, on March 10, "House" begins a run of repeats Mondays at 8, followed by "New Amsterdam's" regular timeslot debut at 9. "New Amsterdam" actually gets two previews beforehand, on Tuesday, March 4, and Thursday, March 6, at 9 p.m., behind two "Idol" editions. "New Amsterdam" finishes its run on April 7 with a two-hour finale; then, on April 14, "Canterbury's Law" bows at 9.

Fox is also shuffling its comedies around, scheduling original episodes of "Back to You" behind 90-minute "Idol" editions on Tuesday, Feb. 26, Wednesday, Feb. 27, and then again on Tuesday, March 25. The show moves to its regular spot, behind "Idol" results shows, on Wednesday, March 19.

"'Til Death," meanwhile, returns with new episodes on Friday, March 14, at 8 p.m., followed by newcomer "Jezebel James" (which also gets a one-time post-"Idol" preview on Wednesday, March 12) at 8:30 p.m.

On Thursdays, Fox will run "Idol" at 8 p.m. on Feb. 21, 28 and March 6; after that, starting March 13, "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" runs at 8 p.m., with "Don't Forget the Lyrics" at 9.

"Bones" repeats will air Fridays at 9 p.m. starting March 14 (after a few weeks at 8 p.m.).

[Hurmoth]

A side note about House. It will return with three new episodes starting Jan. 29.

Wow, there's 3 people here who agree with the AMPTP according to the poll. I hope they come in and discuss why.

[Rappy Veteran]

A side note about House. It will return with three new episodes starting Jan. 29.

Wow, there's 3 people here who agree with the AMPTP according to the poll. I hope they come in and discuss why.

You know they won't they are scared of you ;)

[Hurmoth]

You know they won't they are scared of you ;)

:laugh: I do like that.

And I love to argue. But this isn't something that anyone should need to argue about. It is so simple to understand.

[OPaul]

I watched Leno and Lettermen for the first time in a few years last night (mainly because Daily Show/Colbert Report arn't back yet). I was a little surprised, I really couldn't tell the difference between Dave with writers and Jay without, both shows were just as bad.

[Hurmoth]

With Nods to the Strike, Late-Night Hosts Return

Eight weeks after their writers went on strike and plunged their shows into reruns, Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O’Brien returned to late-night television Wednesday with original shows in which both the Iowa caucuses and the new facial hair on two of the hosts loomed large.

Mr. Letterman, who sported a thick beard as gray as Mr. O’Brien’s was red, was planning to open Wednesday night’s show with a joke delivered not by him but by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton via satellite from Iowa, where she was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Dave has been off the air for eight long weeks due to the writers’ strike,” Mrs. Clinton said, in a bit that was inserted into the opening of “The Late Show” on CBS early Wednesday evening, after the host had concluded his late-afternoon taping. “Tonight he’s back. Oh well. All good things come to an end.”

On the “Tonight Show” on NBC, Mr. Leno interviewed Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, who is seeking the Republican nomination and who, during a break in the taping, picked up an electric guitar to play with the band.

But the biggest difference among the late-night shows, both on camera and off, was this: Mr. Letterman, whose “Late Show” is on CBS at 11:35, was able to draw on his full writing staff because of a deal reached Friday between his production company, Worldwide Pants, and the Writers Guild of America. He performed his usual monologue and “Top 10” list.

By contrast, Mr. Leno, whose show comes on at 11:35 p.m., and Mr. O’Brien, whose “Late Night” follows an hour later, went on without the benefit of their writing staffs, as did Jimmy Kimmel on ABC at midnight. Their writers, all members of the Writers Guild of America, remain on strike. But Mr. Leno still presented a full monologue, one that stretched to nearly 10 minutes.

“A Jew, a Christian and a Muslim walk into a bar,” Mr. Leno said. “The Jew says to the Muslim — see, I have no idea what they say, because there’s a writers’ strike.” Later, Mr. Leno took a characteristic gibe at his network, saying, “There are more people picketing NBC than watching NBC.”

Mr. O’Brien did less of a monologue and spent more time finding ways to improvise on camera. He had someone clock how long he could spin his wedding ring on his desk (36 seconds) and made a running gag of sipping water from a mug. “That’s good water,” he told the audience, adding, “Killed some time.”

Mr. Leno’s studio in Burbank, Calif., and Mr. O’Brien’s at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan were picketed by writers’ guild members yesterday. But in both cases, the protesters took pains to emphasize that their quarrel was with NBC and its parent company, General Electric, and not the hosts themselves. Among the guests who crossed the picket lines were the comedian Bob Saget, who nervously told Mr. O’Brien that he was a guild member, and the TV chef Emeril Lagasse, who joined Mr. Leno.

Both of the late-night shows on Comedy Central, “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” with Stephen Colbert, are scheduled to return Monday. Those shows have also sought to reach interim agreements with the guild, similar to the one struck by Mr. Letterman. Representatives for the shows and the guild met Wednesday, but no deal was announced.

Mr. Letterman devoted much of his show to the strike, in which writers for both television and movies are seeking more money from distribution of their material via the Internet and other new media. He opened the taping by passing through a chorus line of long-legged showgirls clad in white tie and bearing placards that read, “Writers Guild of America on Strike.”

The most unusual moment came during his regular “Top 10 List,” when 10 striking writers — including those from Mr. O’Brien’s show, “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” — presented tongue-in-cheek demands of their employers.

(No. 2: “I don’t have a joke — I just want to remind everyone we’re on strike, so none of us are responsible for this lame list,” said Chris Albers of “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.”)

Mr. O’Brien and Mr. Letterman also sought to wring humor from the beards they grew while being sidelined during the strike. Mr. O’Brien had a camera come in tight while a band member crooned, “Strike beard,” followed by “I love you.” Robin Williams, Mr. Letterman’s first guest, addressed him initially as “General Lee” and then “Rabbi.”

Mr. O’Brien, a former writer for “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons” who, like Mr. Letterman and Mr. Leno, is a guild member, also made reference to the strike on his show.

“We’re back now but sadly, we do not have our writers with us,” he told his audience. “I want to make this clear: I support their cause. These are very talented, very creative people who work extremely hard, and I believe what they’re asking for is fair.”

The guild has said it will try to prevent guests from Hollywood and elsewhere from appearing on shows that are still subject to the strike and has said it will monitor the material performed on those shows to assure that it is not something a writer, or the hosts themselves, could have written in advance. Mr. Leno said that the union rules allowed him to write jokes for himself. “I write jokes and wake my wife up in the middle of the night and say, Honey, is this funny,” he told the audience.

Before Mr. Leno’s taping, Sherry Goldman, a spokeswoman for the Writers Guild of America East, said: “If we think there are things to question, someone will bring the question before the council of the guild. They could be subject to action by the disciplinary committee.” She did not specify what form that discipline might take.

The writers guilds, meanwhile, rebuffed an eleventh-hour bid by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to ward off picketing of its Golden Globes ceremony, which is set for broadcast by NBC on Jan. 13.

Hollywood publicity executives have said they expect stars to avoid the Globes if writers picket. The association has been considering a plan to stage the ceremony without a telecast to avoid confronting striking writers.

In a statement, Alan Rosenberg, president of the Screen Actors Guild, said his union planned to meet with Golden Globes actor-nominees this week.

[Brandon]

The fact is with no shows now, they aren't getting paid for the second half of the season, thus are losing even more money. That makes no sense

[MightyJordan]

I read in The Sun a couple of days ago that these writers are striking because they're ****ed off about seeing their shows streamed online. If that's true, what a bunch of babies! Musicians don't strike because their work is being streamed on YouTube through videos!

BTW, please don't start the "you been living under a rock?!" comments. I don't live in America, so I don't really care about what's going on there, except for wrestling.

[Mathachew Veteran]

I read in The Sun a couple of days ago that these writers are striking because they're ****ed off about seeing their shows streamed online. If that's true, what a bunch of babies! Musicians don't strike because their work is being streamed on YouTube through videos!

BTW, please don't start the "you been living under a rock?!" comments. I don't live in America, so I don't really care about what's going on there, except for wrestling.

You obviously do not know the real reason behind the strike. Online streaming is one part of the argument, but not because it's happening, but because they make no money from their works with it. Again, that's only one part of their cause to strike.

[Hurmoth]

The fact is with no shows now, they aren't getting paid for the second half of the season, thus are losing even more money. That makes no sense

They're still getting paid for reruns of their shows, DVD sales, etc. So the writers are still making money. The point is, with any strike, you are more than less fighting for future generations of writers. The lost revenue is a sacrifice they were all aware of when they voted to go on strike.

You obviously do not know the real reason behind the strike. Online streaming is one part of the argument, but not because it's happening, but because they make no money from their works with it. Again, that's only one part of their cause to strike.

Exactly. There is a huge difference between YouTube and NBC.com.

When music is used in a video on YouTube (which is technically illegal by the way), the musicians don't get paid, but neither does the studio that produced and distributed that music.

When you watch an episode on NBC.com of whatever show, NBC gets paid ad revenue because they place ads every so often during the playback of the episode. The writers get nothing.

This isn't rocket science people. It is simple numbers, NBC = money; Writers (the actual labor works of those shows we love to watch) = nothing.

Zero cents makes zero sense.

Edited January 3, 2008 by Hurmoth

[xinary]

You get paid for a service, once you complete the service, the company can do whatever they want with it. Am I supposed to pay my auto repair shop everytime I use my brand new brakes at a stoplight? These people need to get over it. It's selfish when their are millions who wish they were in a position to have big time writing jobs. They make plenty enough. This is just milking it for all its worth.

[Sheppard]

Why should writers get paid if any tv producer decides to stream online, they are paid to write storys, not so they get a cut from every little damn thing.

I hope they all get fired.

[xinary]

Why should writers get paid if any tv producer decides to stream online, they are paid to write storys, not so they get a cut from every little damn thing.

I hope they all get fired.

+1

[Hurmoth]

Why should writers get paid if any tv producer decides to stream online, they are paid to write storys, not so they get a cut from every little damn thing.

I hope they all get fired.

:laugh: Wow. Have you ever worked in a union before? I'm starting to wonder if you guys know anything about the way the world in the film/tv industry works.

Writers, actors, directors, etc. have always been paid residuals on content they've created.

Definition of a residual for those who don't know: repeat fee: a payment to performers, directors, or writers when their filmed work is shown again, especially on television.

Eventually all the content we see on TV will be fully moved to the internet, our TVs will be connected to the cloud and if they don't get this put their contracts now they may not get it for years and years to come. They'll end up losing millions.

I hope you're never in a situation where someone can say they hope you get fired, that's just plain immature.

[Gotenks98]

Why should writers get paid if any tv producer decides to stream online, they are paid to write storys, not so they get a cut from every little damn thing.

I hope they all get fired.

I hope they get fired too. To me the whole thing is just crazy that they are doing this in the first place. TV as a whole has gone down drastically as to what is even watchable. Most programs copy each other in some way or the writing is just horrible and like on some shows they never get past the a certain plot. If TV was so worth it, I could see them going on strike but as it stands now it is a bunch of crap for the most part.

[xinary]

I hope they get fired too. To me the whole thing is just crazy that they are doing this in the first place. TV as a whole has gone down drastically as to what is even watchable. Most programs copy each other in some way or the writing is just horrible and like on some shows they never get past the a certain plot. If TV was so worth it, I could see them going on strike but as it stands now it is a bunch of crap for the most part.

Even the richest of the rich need more money....lol..I say get over it :) The internet is not TV... for many many reasons.

Next they will want money every time I put a DVD in my DVD Player.

[Hurmoth]

Even the richest of the rich need more money....lol..I say get over it :) The internet is not TV... for many many reasons.

Next they will want money every time I put a DVD in my DVD Player.

You do realize that the majority of the 10,500 writers, the majority of them don't make $30-40K a year, right?

You people need to get the facts before you start forming opinions it seems.

[piehouserat]

Why should writers get paid if any tv producer decides to stream online, they are paid to write storys, not so they get a cut from every little damn thing.

I hope they all get fired.

idiotic post, not to mention immature.