TVSquad

With the WGA Strike as ancient history, the guild is now pushing to have reality shows join its organization. In an effort to do this, the WGA is specifically targeting the show American Idol.

They're calling it the Truth Tour and it begins with a Wednesday morning press conference in front of WGA headquarters following by a set of fake auditions at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, where auditions are held for the actual American Idol. They call it "the version they don't want you to see".

It looks like some of the writers who participated in the WGA Strike have decided to start their own network. No, it's not a television network. Strike.tv is slated to begin this summer. It will contain more than 40 short-form programs including comedies, dramas and a game show.

Participating television (and movie) writers include Lester Lewis (The Office), Rob Kutner (The Daily Show), Stephen E. de Souza (Die Hard), Karen Harris (General Hospital) and Ron Corcillo (Malcolm in the Middle). Acting talent involved with the programming include Bob Newhart, Timothy Dalton and Kristen Wiig.

Interesting piece over at Nikki Finke's site. While everyone is concentrating on a possible actors strike (the deadline is Monday for SAG to make an agreement), there's another little controversy going on. The Writers Guild of America West has asked the FCC to look into the ever-increasing habit of product integration in network shows. Not only does the WGA want to see the use of products on television eased up, which the FCC is already looking into, they also want to go one step further and make viewers fully aware that they are seeing an ad.

And how would the networks do that?

And you thought that all that business with the WGA strike was over.

The writers for the new animated FOX show Sit Down, Shut Up have walked out, saying they were misled by Sony Pictures. They thought that under the agreement reached a few months ago they would be represented by the Writer's Guild of America but Sony actually has them covered under the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Under their rules, writers don't get all those things they fought for, including new media (online, DVD, etc) money or even residuals.

(S12E04) The South Park guys are going after the Writer's Guild of America, and it's about time.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are not members of any of the unions, and they negotiated Internet profit-sharing before it became an issue for the WGA. They have also remained consistent with their dislike of the Hollywood creative elite (including actors and writers, although they are both) and their willingness to take a different viewpoint than the popular media.

It's so nice now that the WGA strike is over and all the shows are coming back, isn't it? It's like we're suddenly inundated with presents galore. Just the idea of new shows puts a smile on my face; let's hope it's still there once the shows air!

ABC has announced that Samantha Who?, their most promising new sitcom of the season, will be returning with six new episodes on Monday, April 7 (at 9:30). But maybe the network's biggest news is a time shift. Starting April 24, Lost will commence five new episodes at 10:00, rather than 9:00. Also on April 24, Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy both return with five new episodes each.

Variety is reporting that the strike is indeed over. I think I speak for everyone at TV Squad when I say, "Yay!" to this news. The WGA West president announced that almost 93% of the guild members have voted in favor of lifting the strike. The total vote tally was 3,492 members for yes and 283 for no. The vote, held over 48 hours, allowed members to vote in person at the Writer's Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills or the Gotham Crowne Plaza or via fax.

OK, so the writers and the studios have come to an agreement and the strike is over. Now we can start dumping on everyone!

The Writers Guild of America East held their awards show on Saturday night in New York City, celebrating each other and also the end of the three month strike. The event really got lively when Triumph The Insult Comic Dog (with help from Robert Smigel) took the stage and unleashed some choice barbs at the WGA. He also gets in a few shots at NBC head Jeff Zucker, the late night hosts, and John Ridley. There are too many funny lines to just reprint here (though nothing about pooping on the new contract, which is odd), but here are a few highlights.

According to an article in the Hollywood Reporter, the cost of the WGA strike on the local Los Angeles economy is estimated at $2 billion. This is four times the number of the 1988 strike, which lasted six weeks longer.

All this information assumes the strike will end Tuesday when the contract terms are put to general vote. It's a likely assumption.

I've been to L.A. and it's pretty much a one-industry town (yes, I'm referring to the entertainment industry). When every other industry revolves around that one, a strike hits pretty hard.

WGA leaders voted unanimously Sunday to endorse the proposed deal with studios, effectively ending the three month writers' strike that has crippled the television industry. While they do feel that the deal falls short, it still makes key gains in dealing with the new media; remember that it was this area of downloads and internet streaming that was one of the most important issues to the guild.

While the strike is ended per union leaders, writers won't return to work until the membership itself has had a chance to vote on the new deal. They are expected to vote "yes" on Tuesday and be back to work by Wednesday. The timing of this resolution means that some of this season can yet be salvaged and there's still time for pilot production for new series next year. For details on how this will affect your favorite shows, Keep up to date with Mike Ausiello's nearly comprehensive list of when your shows will return. And now things can get back to normal, and we can all go back to needlessly hating on According to Jim, the way God intended.

According to Variety, the WGA and the AMPTP reached a tentative settlement of the three month-old writers' strike early this morning. The presidents of the east and west coast guilds of the WGA sent this letter, which announces the agreement and gives information on the membership meetings that are being held today to discuss the terms of the deal. According to this PDF of the contract terms, it looks like the writers are going to get some credit and money if their writing is used for new media purposes, like on the internet or on moblie phones. It just doesn't look like they're going to get as much as they were looking for.

And that might be a problem. According to Nikki Finke, she's hearing that the rank-and-file members of the guild have been expressing displeasure at the terms of the contract in today's meetings, with the feeling that the union leadership is "ramming this deal down our throats," as one of her sources told her.

It looks like the studios and the writers have agreed to contract terms. It will be presented to the union leaders in a few days and may lead to the end of the WGA strike which has been going on since November 5th, 2007. TV Squad has recently written that the strike may end soon.

According to the article, television producers have made February 15th the de facto deadline for putting the writers back and salvaging what's left of this television season. For movie studios, the deadline is seen as early March to prevent major disruption with the 2009 movie release schedule.

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?

I guess those informal talks that the WGA and studios had last week paid off: we might have an end to the writers strike as early as next week.

The New York Times is reporting that sources (who want to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons) say that one of the main deals that the WGA was looking for - compensation for work that appears on the web - may be close to becoming a reality. No exact details are available yet, but the sources say that the deal could be finalized next week. Maybe this will deal will be in place in time for the Oscars later this month. The strike has been going on for almost four months now.

I just wonder how this affects this season. Is there still time to save this season or will we have to wait until the fall for new episodes?

It's good to see that the Screen Actors Guild Awards got a waiver from the WGA. Where the Golden Globe Awards were reduced to an extended press conference type event and the Academy Awards might have some alternative plan in place, the SAG Awards are actually going to have stars and a red carpet and acceptance speeches. It might turn out to be the awards show to watch this year.

I'll be live blogging the awards tonight, starting at 7:30pm EST. That means I'll get a half hour's worth of the red carpet coverage. I could have started the blogging at 5pm, when E!'s red carpet coverage starts, but then I realized that three hours of red carpet blogging would be insane. I think a half hour on the carpet and two hours of show coverage will be plenty. The show airs at 8 on TNT and TBS.

Here's a list of the nominees.