As Bob detailed earlier, it looks like there may be an end in sight to the three-month old writers strike. In fact, Variety reports that now it's just a matter of crossing the T's, dotting the I's, and voting on the new contract. As for the rest of this season and next? TV executives had slated February 15th as the "Do or Die" date. If a deal could not be made by that date, this season was pretty much done and pilot season for next year was at risk as well. But now it looks like this thing may be over by the end of this week.Compromises were made on both sides, but the streaming revenue the writers were fighting for has been addressed, with scribes getting a flat fee for for the first year (excluding a limited free initial 2-3 week window for promotional purposes) followed by a percentage of distributor's gross. What this means is that networks will be able to stream all shows for several weeks after their initial airing for free, and they can keep a whole season online for a year for a single flat rate, but for deals like the current streaming of the entire Lost run in HD on abc.com, a percentage cut would go to writers. Download residuals closely followed the earlier DGA deal, which nearly doubles writer residuals there. Hopefully, they can wrap this up soon and we can get our full Lost season in this year. And maybe a late start to 24 as well?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-04-2008 @ 1:10PM
Oreo said...
24 is most likely screwed, but I think viewers can wait to see Jack fight the Aliens from the moon for a year.
But Lost and BSG will be finished and Bones could at least get some more episodes! :)
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2-04-2008 @ 1:27PM
bsgfan2003 said...
They might finish the remaining BSG episodes, but will they air them in 2008? That's what I want to know.
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2-04-2008 @ 1:54PM
Oreo said...
No, Sci-fi Channel was never going to air all the episodes this year.
2-04-2008 @ 2:08PM
Akbar Fazil said...
Oreo, Scifi never actually stated they were going to split the season. It was pretty much assumed they were going to based on some earlier discussion but nothing was officially decided until the strike forced production to stop.
2-04-2008 @ 8:09PM
Oreo said...
No it's not official, but a lot of things aren't official, yet they will do it. There is a 99% chance they will, Moore thought they would I'm going to go and say they will.
Of course now they have to, the best we can hope for is fall.
2-04-2008 @ 1:44PM
Ryan said...
I just hope I get to see the full final season of Scrubs, I've put in a lot of time into that show and I feel like it deserves a proper send off.... and I don't want to have to buy the final seasons DVD just to watch the final episode.
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2-04-2008 @ 2:00PM
johngaltx said...
Maybe with their time off they have recharged their creative batteries and will come roaring back with new and exciting episodes while finally put a stake through the heart of reality TV!
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2-04-2008 @ 3:48PM
Argus said...
Holey moley that deal looks bad. If this strike went on all these months only to have us get a deal only moderately better than the DGA deal I'll be very disappointed.
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2-04-2008 @ 4:09PM
edd said...
That headline hurt my head. Nice to know Borat's able to find work in America after his film :)
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2-04-2008 @ 4:56PM
C C said...
I'm afraid that the WGA is accepting a lackluster deal. My pet conspiracy theory is that the politicians (and I'm talking about both parties) very quietly got involved behind the scenes. What the writers really want is reliable accounting and intellectual property rights-two things that could be gained through legal and congressional channels. I think the politicans made a few "promises" to the writers and producers if they settled now.
Concerning 24, I have a hunch we may get a taste before this current tv season is up. Rumors have been flying about a "surprise return" and "mini-seasons". My feeling is that they're going to (or already have) filmed some kind of multi-episode prequel (anywhere from 2 to 6 episodes) to next season that will air in about three months. We'll probably get the seventh season in it's entirety next year.
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2-04-2008 @ 5:13PM
sitruc said...
Thanks for actually putting some understandable details in this update. I really appreciated seeing those here instead of wading through articles on the Internet and then looking for more to understand them.
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2-04-2008 @ 7:17PM
Locke said...
Darkufo is reporting that Lost filming has resumed! He says the souce has been impeccable so far. Could it be true?
Source: http://darkufo.blogspot.com/2008/02/lost-filming-has-resumed.html
Let's hope it is.
Greetings.
http://www.soulhospital.com
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2-04-2008 @ 8:21PM
Oreo said...
I call BS. Even if they made a deal 2-3 days ago it takes longer to write an episode than that.
2-05-2008 @ 12:14PM
LordPaul said...
& Oreo: Does that mean that they can use scripts that they were writing during or before the break?
Surely there will be treatments that were mostly done that they can use now they can polish the rewrites & I'm pretty sure they won't say something like "oh, you can't have written that since the strike, so you're a scab!" or whatever
2-04-2008 @ 8:20PM
Oreo said...
If the strike doesn't end Scrubs will not have a final episode, so what will there to be to watch on a DVD?
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