I have the upbeat energy of a corpse pulsing through my body right now so today should be a fine affair. The Writer’s Guild of America officially stated their intent to strike over the weekend and last minute negotiations have failed, and the general public has thus been sentenced to reruns of the Tonight Show and a constant barrage of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader two hour specials. For all of you who watch a great deal of television, my heart goes out to you during this difficult time. I assure you that I will feel the same sort of pain if Prison Break gets affected by this and I’m sure it will come mid-season break.
The rumors are that this could last up through some point in 2008, something that seems almost unfathomable unless you were around for the 1988 strike that lasted some six months or so. I was, but I wasn’t paying a great deal of attention due to my obsession at the time with Nintendo and Mets baseball. I’m sure Perfect Strangers fans were devastated. Many of you are more than likely wondering what shows are actually going to be affected by this and I can tell you that late night shows are going to take the first blow, probably going to repeats as early as tonight unless someone like Jimmy Kimmel opts to do some improv on his show. Soaps will be next, and somewhere down the road you’ll start to see this influence some but not all of the late night dramas and sitcoms.
I have found a handy dandy guide from the LA Times that lists what’s going to happen with at least some but not all of these shows.
LA Times: - How Shows Will Be Affected By WGA Strike
