TVSquad

Is it even possible to imagine The Young and the Restless without Eric Braeden as hero/villain Victor Newman? You would think not, but then Days of Our Lives moved on without Deidre Hall as Dr. Marlena Evans, didn't it? Still, Braeden and his alter ego Victor is still a front and center presence on the show, an integral part of the storytelling. Therefore, the news that The Young and the Restless is contemplating killing off Victor if they cannot resolve the contract dispute with Braeden is a shocker.

Braeden is working now under a contract that lasts till 2010, and his reps have said that he would take a pay cut once the term is up. However, producers are asking him to take a pay cut now. That, my friends, is the rub. Braeden wants to help the show stay on the air, but he's not ready to take an economic hit until he has to. That's understandable.

When last we saw actress Jorja Fox on CSI, her alter ego Sara Sidle was deep in the Costa Rican jungle, happily reunited with the love of her life, Gil Grissom. Well, apparently Sara's going to have some very good reason to leave that romantic idyll because come this fall, Jorja Fox is returning to CSI for five episodes.

There's no indication that William Petersen's Gil is joining her, although since Petersen is still connected to the show as an executive producer, he could decide to pop in for a show or two.

This news actually made my day. Apparently, in order to appear as "celebrities" on the television show The Real Housewives of New Jersey, the housewives themselves were not paid and in some cases owed the producers some of their non-television related income.

This is brilliant! This solves the issue of declining profits for television. Want your own reality show? Then pay for the privilege. It's like buying commercial time without anything definitive to promote. If any of them start their own business as a result of their undeserved fame (like a line of clothing or something), will they owe that income to the producers as well?

No matter how much I loathe reality television, I loathe The Real Housewives of New Jersey just a little bit more. I applaud any opportunity to stick them with a fine for having the viewer subjected to them. The punchline to this joke would be if they all signed the same contract for their upcoming second season.

Get on your craziest costume and ask your mom again if you really, really can sing because it's time to start the process of making an ass of yourself on national television all over again. Only this time, the crazies who go to the first round of auditions won't get the chance to sing in front of the judges until a callback sometime later this summer. That's because while they want to get the audition process under way, American Idol doesn't know if they're bringing back Paula Abdul or Kara DioGuardi.

I wonder if this move will keep some of the crazies away. Now you're looking at two entirely separate trips just to look stupid on television. Will it still be worth it? Sure, the local crazies will still come out, but what about the travelers? It is interesting to note that Idol is changing the process up this much due to contract questions. That must mean that they're really not sure about one or both of the women's return to the show. DioGuardi was on a one-year deal, while Abdul's multi-year contract ended this season.

It's been so long that we've heard anything about a possible actors strike that I kinda forgot all about it. Now it looks like we don't have to worry about it.

The Screen Actors Guild has made a tentative deal with producers and studios, so there will be no crazy interruption/chaos in our TV entertainment choices like we saw with the writers strike last year (remember that? Wasn't that fun?). The two major sticking points were compensation for new media (DVDs, online, etc) and when the contract would end. The two-year deal will be finalized this Sunday when the 71 member national board meets and votes on it. I'm sure a lot of members won't like the new contract but only half of the members have to vote for it to pass.

So if you've been worrying about a possible strike, you can exhale now. And get to work worrying about whether or not your favorite show will make it to the fall.

Earlier this week we told you about the diaries that Survivor contestant Nicole Delma was selling on eBay. The listing was taken down suddenly and now we know why: CBS asked her to take it down (this has been confirmed by CBS).

The bidding for the diaries somehow, some way, got up to over $2000, then CBS called and asked Delma to stop the sale because it was in breach of the contract she signed. Delma thinks that CBS might have been a little antsy about certain parts of the diaries where Delma describes scenes of the hit reality show being staged and even scenes being re-shot. Of course, this news is nothing new, we've heard talk that certain scenes on Survivor (and other reality show) are re-staged or re-shot for the camera. The only comment CBS would release about the controversy is that they thinking the diaries are "boring" and that they asked her nicely to stop the auction.

Her solution? She's going to release a "novel," because there's nothing in her CBS contract that can stop her from releasing a work of fiction. That's actually kinda clever. I side with CBS on this though, if she did indeed sign a contract that stops her from revealing behind the scenes info.

Now that the strike is over, networks and the powers that be behind each shows are deciding how many episodes they can shoot in the coming two months or so to air by the end of May or early June. Their decision will be based on the storylines they can offer and wrap up in a small number of episodes as well as the production cost. Some series, like Heroes, that require more FX, flashy sets, more post-production time, may resume shooting in the coming weeks but those episodes will more than likely be for next season. But one thing most fans (I include myself in the lot) didn't consider in the equation to determine the number of new episodes will get are the actors' contracts.

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.

In a move that should surprise no one, Jon Stewart has extended his contract until 2010 with Comedy Central. Considering the big relaunch of The Daily Show website and the success of both this show and its spin-off The Colbert Report, I somehow didn't think they'd be letting the guy go.

I've often thought that Stewart would be a natural replacement for Letterman (and there are rumors flying around to that effect). However, to the best of my knowledge Letterman isn't retiring yet.

We know that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was picked up for a third season, but how did they get Danny DeVito to stick around? The video below explains everything, and if the warnings at the beginning of the video aren't enough, let me tell you upfront that the video is NOT SAFE FOR WORK and contains mature themes.

Tell you what: skip down to the bottom of this post and watch the video first, because I'm going to talk about it and I don't want to ruin any of it for you.

The spat between NBC and Apple continues. Yesterday NBC said it would terminate its contract with Apple when it expires in December, to which Apple replied that it would stop selling NBC Universal programming before the start of the fall season.

At issue is Apple's pricing scheme. But while Apple had said that NBC wanted to change the wholesale pricing of TV shows so that individual episodes could cost as much as $4.99, NBC disputes that figure.

What happens when a major content producer like NBC tells a major digital content distributor like iTunes that it wants more money per episode? If you guessed contract negotiations devolve into a hissyfit, you're right.

NBC says it will not renew its contract to sell television shows through iTunes when that contract expires in December. And Apple says that's fine by them, even though NBC is the top supplier of video content for iTunes, with popular shows like The Office, Heroes, and Battlestar Galactica.

Today, Monday September 10, 2007, TV Squad is remembering blogger Adam Finley who passed away tragically late last week. All front page posts will be staff picks of Adam's writing through the years.

NBC has extended Carson Daly's contract for two more years, which means I'll have two more years to not watch Last Call with Carson Daly.

It's not that I dislike Carson Daly. I've caught his show a few times and he's actually quite likable. The problem is that it's on really late at night and I have to get to bed early so I can wake up at sunrise and feed the chickens. This requires getting up early because I don't actually own any chickens and have to trespass onto random farms. It is my belief that all chickens are grossly underfed, but that's beyond the point.

Katee Sackhoff, who plays Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, just inked a last-minute deal for a recurring role on NBC's Bionic Woman. She has a guest spot in the pilot as a "bad" bionic woman and you've probably noticed that she has been played up pretty heavily in NBC's promo spots for the new series. But, she only was scheduled to appear in the first few episodes... until last night. Sackhoff and NBC Universal came to a contract deal where her "bad" character will now be a recurring role.

David Eick, executive producer for both BSG and Bionic Woman, is said to have been the driving force behind that deal. Sackhoff didn't show up for this week's TCA panel on Bionic Woman because she was still negotiating a contract. A bold move, really. But not as bold as what Starbuck would've done, which is to show up drunk and start fighting with people who asked her questions about whether she's a Cylon.

Actually, they were asked to split. Ike Barinholtz and Frank Caeti did not have their contracts renewed for the show's upcoming thirteenth season. This news comes about the same time as news of comedians Johnny Sanchez and Anjelah Nicole Johnson joining the cast.

Barinholtz worked on the series for five seasons. Caeti was on for only two.