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Writers Strike News Roundup: Jan. 14

Jan 15, 2008  •  Post A Comment

Directors Put Hope Into Writers Talks
The Directors Guild of America has entered into contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and could end up with a good deal in new media reuse, Daily Variety reports. The DGA contract could bode well for the Writers Guild of America, which is currently on strike regarding Internet compensation for work, the newspaper says. Optimists hope that the DGA’s deal could act as a beneficial template for the writers contract, the newspaper reports.
ABC Studios Cuts Writers Citing Force Majeure
Nearly two dozen writers were cut from the ABC Studio roster due to force majeure contract clauses, Daily Variety reports. The clauses allow studio to dismiss staff members after a certain time of unforeseeable inactivity, such as a strike. Insiders say the firings cut loose writers and non-writing producers not working on major series, like “Desperate Housewives,” the newspaper says. The cuts don’t appear to be completely strike related, with hints that ABC-Disney might be preparing to produce fewer pilots next season, the newspaper reports.
‘Daily Show’ Writers Plan Benefit
Writers from “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” are holding a benefit sketch/comedy show at Ars Nova in New York on Jan. 22, Broadcasting & Cable reports. The writers, along with talent John Oliver, are producing the show to give proceeds to the Writers Guild Industry Support Fund, the newspaper says. The show follows “30 Rock,” “The Colbert Report,” and “Saturday Night Live” in planning live events to benefit the Writers Guild, B&C says.
Casting Begins on Fox Pilot, Sans Script, Order
Fox pilot “Inseparable” has been given the go-ahead for casting, but the show lacks a script and a pilot order, the Hollywood Reporter says. The script is held up due by creator Shaun Cassidy, and Mr. Cassidy can’t pen the script until after the strike. Fox won’t order a pilot until they receive the script, the newspaper reports. In order to get a head start when the writers do return to work, Fox is moving forward with casting, the newspaper says.
Video Sharing Sites Get Boost During Strike
YouTube saw an 18% boost in traffic during the first two months of the writers strike, leading some to believe that viewers might be replacing rerun television with new material on the Internet, the Guardian reports. Other video sharing sites, such as Crackle and Dailymotion also saw modest upturns in traffic between September and November, the newspaper says. MSN, Yahoo! and MySpace did see drops in their traffic during those time periods, the newspaper says.
Andrew Krukowski
(Editor: Baumann)

13 Comments

  1. writers suck and have brooms stack up thier ass like its brokeback mountain or something

  2. I can’t believe they are firing writers now. This is beyond rediculous. I refuse to watch another episode of any … its been hard enough going without my favorite shows… grrr.
    Call a boycott of Writerless Shows and crap reality tv!!

  3. Writers suck? What? These are groups of 5-10 people that are making less than 100,000 dollars and few if any benefits, while working their ass off. And those are the ones that ‘make it’ with big shows. Meanwhile some big actors who just read the words (yeah real hard) get paid hundreds of thousands PER EPISODE.
    These shows would be nothing without the writers. Just because you don’t know their faces hollywood thinks they are expendable, while some crap actor gets a job that pays 5 times as well (usually more) that they almost can’t lose.

  4. I agree Drew. Jeff’s hate is directed at the WGA for standing up for what is right… rather than at the AMPTP who is trying to take money out of the writer’s pockets. What is worse being a theif (AMPTP), or being stand-up guys (and gals) who are just trying to make an honest living (WGA).

  5. I’m glad to see writers fired. Now they too can suffer for their cause.
    Their strike has already cost 10s of thousands of us to lose our jobs. Remember it’s wga members writing the evening news and they are protrayed as ‘the poor writers’. Very little is being said about the 80,000 plus people that have already lost their jobs, the real collateral damage.

  6. Richie…
    Welcome!
    Glad to have you on our side (not that we should be taking sides on this because it really IS messed up that behind the secens folks are losing their job because of the strike).
    CA…
    I just wanted to point out that the WGA does NOT control the news media. News writers are part of a different union. So to say that they are writing stories to promote their own agenda is false.
    Now it looks like music’s biggest stars are gonna boycott the Grammy awards ceremony if the writers are striking.

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