Effect of the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike on television
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November 2007 striking writers and supporters rally in Los Angeles
The 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, which began on November 5, 2007, was a labor conflict that affected a large number of television shows that were due to be broadcast in the United States during the 2007–2008 television season. Negotiators for the striking writers reached a tentative agreement on February 8, 2008, and the boards of both guilds unanimously approved the deal on February 10, 2008.[1]
Striking writers voted on February 12, 2008, to end the strike immediately,[2] and on February 26, the WGA announced that the contract had been ratified with a 93.6% approval among WGA members.[3]
Effect on shows
Shows with increased number of episodes
Some shows, especially unscripted or reality shows, benefitted from the strike by providing the networks with new material.
Originally only one season (The Amazing Race 12) was planned for the 2007–2008 season. A second season of the show (The Amazing Race 13) was greenlit shortly after the start of the strike, although it did not air till the following TV season with the premiere airing on September 28, 2008. The season finale aired on December 7, 2008.
Originally only one season was planned for the show's traditional summer slot in 2008. Due to the writer's strike, a second season for 2008 was ordered. Big Brother 9 aired in the winter-spring period and premiered Tuesday, February 12, 2008, with three episodes per week.[4]Big Brother 10 aired during the summer and premiered Sunday, July 13, 2008, with three episodes per week.[5]
Meant to be a one-off special, new episodes were made for the first time in 7 years to fill gap left by lack of US product.[6] The new run lasted until 2011, with a final special in 2012.[7][8]
In response to the strike, CBS ordered 10 primetime The Price is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular specials, the first to feature then-new host Drew Carey. They aired on Friday nights beginning February 22, 2008. CBS also ordered additional episodes of the Carey-hosted quiz show Power of 10.[9]
Unaffected shows
Some shows were not affected by the strike, being unscripted, not using union writers, or completing their production before the strike began. Some shows made in Canada use mainly or solely Canadian writers and were thus unaffected by the US strike.
Only Big Three network game show to premiere whole series during the strike. Second season as weekly series premiered on April 4, 2008, and ended on July 25, 2008, for 10 episodes.
All episodes completed of Season 2 before strike. Production started early in anticipation.[14] Season 1 re-purposed on CBS due to lack of new content.[15]
Show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were not members of the union, and continued writing and producing the show at the beginning of the strike with the final two episodes of season 11 airing as planned. The show was on a scheduled hiatus for the rest of the strike's duration.
All of Season 4 was completed. Most writers are members of the Writers Guild of Canada. It was reported that the broadcast schedule would potentially be affected because of the broader effects of the strike.[24]
Using financial core and strikebreaker material as of January 4, 2008. Writing led by non-striking guild member Garin Wolf. Head writer Robert Guza Jr. and his staff returned after the strike.
Much of the remainder of Power Rangers Jungle Fury was written by strikebreakers working under pseudonyms. The final three episodes (plus a fourth episode, written out of order) were written by longtime series writer Jackie Marchand and John Tellegen upon the strike's end. A fifth episode, "Maryl and the Monkeys," was originally credited in released synopses to a writer named Sal N. Mitchell but when it aired, the episode was credited to executive producer Bruce Kalish.[29]
Writing taken over by non-striking guild members Josh Griffith and Maria Arena Bell (the daughter-in-law of the show's creator William J. Bell), among others. Griffith/Bell material aired starting December 26, 2007. Lynn Marie Latham and three of her writers were terminated as of February 13, 2008.
Weeds was not scheduled to start filming until April 2008 for a summer debut,[30] however, Lionsgate made a side deal to avert a production halt and remained unaffected, airing as planned in August.[20]
All 6 ordered episodes were completed. Premiered on March 10, 2008.
Shows delayed or interrupted by the strike
Some shows ran out of episodes, but caught up to their ordered amount after the strike. Some other shows, such as talk shows, were interrupted, but made arrangements to return to screens early.
Initially set to air final episodes starting in February. The April 2008 airing of the remaining episodes from the third season were pushed back to September.[citation needed]
David Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, successfully negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement, so the show returned with its full complement of writing staff.[36]
Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, successfully negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement, so the show returned with its full complement of writing staff.[36]
The cast performed a live show at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater in New York City which later resulted in the airing of a live broadcast episode entitled "Live Show" in 2010.[43]
Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) was planned to be killed off at the end of Season 1, but his character was spared since the episodes weren't written due to the strike.[48] Season 2 premiered on March 8, 2009.
Show runner Seth MacFarlane said (Lois Kills Stewie) was the last episode produced under his watch and no more new episodes were ready after that.[53] However, Fox completed the three episodes written, voiced and animated for the production cycle without MacFarlane's final approval.
Two episodes were produced after the strike — as indicated by production codes — that aired as part of the eighth season when the show moved to ABC. One of those two episodes, "My Nah Nah Nah", made use of unused footage from the incomplete twelfth episode of the seventh season that had its filming halted as a result of the strike.
The seventh season was originally scheduled to air in January 2008, but was delayed until January 2009. FOX announced a two-hour movie, 24: Redemption, that was shown on November 23, 2008, to bridge the year and a half gap between season 6 and season 7.
It was renewed for 2008–2009 season with no new episodes set to air until then. The last three episodes were pushed to the beginning of the next season.
Originally scheduled for June 2008 under a different concept, the original pilot featured the Jonas Brothers working as spies was filmed before the strike, due to their increasing popularity, the series was retooled after the strike and premiered on May 2, 2009.
No episodes were written because the show was renewed the day after the strike began.
Shows cancelled during strike
Some shows cancelled during the strike were under threat of cancellation anyway. In other cases, shows were cancelled, or had their seasons shortened, because of the financial damage of the strike. Several television shows, including Journeyman, K-Ville, Big Shots, and Cavemen, were "quietly" cancelled, in part due to the writer's strike, and in part due to low ratings.[75]
First cancelled in December 2007, the series was later announced on the mid-season schedule, but was ultimately cancelled for good on May 13, 2008.[77]
Although rumored to have been cancelled following its eighth episode, media reports suggested that NBC-Universal intended to produce the remaining episodes of the 13-episode order. In March 2008, producer David Eick announced the series had been cancelled.[78]
Production suspended, only 3 episodes produced for a planned 3rd season, later aired as a part of season 2, series cancelled upon completion of the strike.
8 episodes were to be produced, unknown how many were written.[21]
Strike effect by type of show
Prime-time series
Mid-season shows, such as Dirt and The Riches, began production after most other TV shows, so they had completed fewer episodes; although some shows were produced early, knowing a strike was possible. 24, also airing mid-season, was postponed due to the serial nature of the show.
For some shows without full-season pickups such as Moonlight, production on the first batch of shows was completed.
Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence responded to concerns that a proper series finale may not air,[87] as only 11 of its 18 ordered episodes were filmed at the time. Lawrence stated he would either release the finale on DVD or post what would have happened in episodes 13 through 18 on the internet. However, it was announced in May 2008 that ABC picked up Scrubs for an eighth season for 2008–2009.
During the strike, ABC's Dirty Sexy Money was given a full season order. NBC also gave full season orders to Life, and Chuck and also announced that, contrary to recurring rumor, Bionic Woman would also continue production after the strike.[88]
FX Network's The Shield is one of the few shows that was able to air the entire season, as it was mostly wrapped before the strike started. Similarly, CBS's returning series, Jericho, aired midseason. Production of the full season was completed prior to the strike and was not affected by the work stoppage.
Some networks such as CBS, due to the financial effects of the strike, ordered a reduced number of pilots.[89]
CBS aired a Canadian series, Flashpoint.[90] NBC similarly aired the Canadian series The Listener,[91] but pulled the show after one episode due to low ratings.
On November 12, 2007, instead of a recent episode, NBC aired an episode of The Tonight Show from November 17, 2003.[95][96] Beginning the week of November 26, The Tonight Show began continuously airing "vintage" episodes.[97][98]The Tonight Show was reportedly planning to air new episodes beginning November 19, having guest hosts to fill in for Jay Leno.[99] This did not occur, however.
Several talk show hosts who refused to do their shows announced that they would pay non-striking staff members out of their own pockets through the end of the year, including David Letterman[100] and Conan O'Brien. Jay Leno was chided when NBC fired his non-striking staff, after he promised them they would not have to worry about their jobs. Leno later announced that he would also pay his staff for the next 2 weeks starting December 2, 2007.
David Letterman and his Worldwide Pants, Inc. production company broke ranks with the networks and negotiated its own independent contract with the WGA in late 2007. The deal was independent and only between the production company and the union, and allowed the company to start new shows in 2008.[101]
Other
Although many animated series employ union writers, there is no requirement to do so. For instance, the writers of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, were not union members, and the show remained in production during the strike.[102] The episode "Canada on Strike" was written as a parody of the WGA strike.
Movies, such as High School Musical 3: Senior Year, were directly affected by the strike, including those filmed on location. However, the strike did not affect reality shows such as American Idol, whose episodes are unscripted, or news programs, whose writers belong to a different guild.[103] Nevertheless, newswriters at CBS News and at local CBS owned-and-operated television stations (as well as CBS Radio news entities) were subject to the threat of a different strike action by the WGA. CBS News writers under the WGA had been without a contract with the network since April 2005[104] until a contract was agreed to on January 9, 2008.[105]
Similarly, some game shows, such as Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and The Price Is Right, were not affected because they are unscripted, other than the questions and the prize descriptions (and in Price's case, Showcase skits); by contrast, Sony Pictures' Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, and Disney's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire had their quiz questions researched and written by WGA writers under deals with their producers.
The first season of the game show Duel premiered on December 17, 2007, and ended on December 23, 2007; the first season of the show was the only game show, and thus the only strike-replacement program, that was affected by the strike. The second season premiered on April 4, 2008, and ended on July 25, 2008, with an 8-week break between May 2 and June 27.[106] A revival of American Gladiators was launched sooner than originally scheduled, with taping in November 2007 that aired in January 2008. Other game, contest and reality shows launched sooner than originally scheduled in order to minimize the amount of scripted-program reruns, and CBS commissioned an order of six episodes of The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular, the first in the primetime series with new host Drew Carey (who took over hosting duties that season), which later resulted in four additional episodes later in the season. This resulted in drastic mid-season set changes that allowed the show to switch to high-definition television, initially with these episodes, and the daytime show switched for the start of the next season.[107]
Nightline was the only late-night network program to benefit in the Nielsen ratings from the writers strike. As well, many ABC, and some Fox, affiliates won their late news timeslots as a result of the strike, with most ending winning streaks of the local CBS or NBC affiliates. Among these ABC and Fox affiliates were KABC-TV in Los Angeles, WCVB in Boston, WFAA in Dallas, WTTG in Washington, KSTU in Salt Lake City, KMSP in Minneapolis, KTVI in St. Louis, KOMO-TV in Seattle and WXYZ-TV in Detroit.
