Discovery

We all may be in trouble.  Talks have broken of between studios and the writers union.  And the New York  Times reports that they could strike as early as Friday.  Already we’re seeing the fallout of this.  NBC has put off airing Heroes: Origins because, well, who’s going to write it?

What’s a little unnerving is the fact that this season has so many good new shows and some returns that really need to find a good pace.  

Reaper and Pushing Daisies are coming along great.  But we all know what happens to every show when it takes any sort of break, even just a mid season breather.  Like Heroes in the first season, ratings drop.  A lot.  Journeyman has potential but if it hits a break in airing it won’t be able to hold any ratings when/if it comes back.  And what about the new Joss Whedon show?  Even if Fox wants to pick it up after 7 episodes, are they already written?  He may get his first real chance to go sci-fi only to have bad timing kill it instead of the network!

Heroes is a really good show but this season has been a bit lagging.  The end of last season (post break) hit some lows with ratings.  Now Origins is being pushed back.  The show is at a point where, if it catches on, it could last for years and years.  Conversely, if it hits a lot of snags all at once it could very well tank and do incredible damage to NBC, since they’ve invested so much in it.  Lost is ostensibly in the same position when it comes back on.  It’s been hurting with ratings for a bit now and if there’s a break in the pacing it’s likely a lot of people will simply give up on it.

There’s also Scrubs, but it just started up and it’s the last season so there’s no worry of losing anything there.  But what about my other sit-com, How I Met Your Mother?  It’s a sit-com with a story arch that’s on a network geared towards an older audience then watches HIMYM.  While it’s been pretty solid for a bit this strike could drive a wedge into any cracks a show might have.  And that’s not even looking at the tons of other shows out there that I don’t even watch/care about.

Why is this happening?  The writers want more money.  Not in a greedy way.  They just want some pay from one of the newest (and most lucrative) markets the studios are using: DVDs and internet distribution, the new syndication.

Since the talks were being held through last night and its union related it’s really impossible to find out the actual numbers each side was pushing for payment.  I can’t say if the writers are being greedy or not.  But it’s a pretty safe bet that most of their demands aren’t nuts.  The writers guild is the lowest paid between them, directors and producers.  And now that DVD and internet have come out to be such an important market it makes sense that their terms for payment regarding them gets reevaluated.

Well, I hope it all gets settled soon.  So far I’ve just gone off about weekly shows.  The first to be hit are the dailies, like soaps, talks shows and things like The Daily Show.  Then regular TV.  Then movies.  Films they probably have a pretty big (quantity, not quality) stockpile of scripts.  Maybe even some shows too.  But our media will start to suffer.  And pretty soon, if they strike.  Lord knows I don’t want the Star Wars show the only thing on for the next 20 years.