All Posts Tagged With: "Writers Strike"

Hungry for a real awards show? Tired of watching canned bits with no red carpet and no opportunity to laugh at what people are wearing? I sure am. Sometimes by this time in the season we’re a little overrun with the awards shows, but this time we’re hungering for them after being denied them thanks to the Writers Guild Strike. With even the possibility of an Oscars telecast up in the air, we get the Screen Actors Guild Awards tonight, being broadcast on both TBS and TNT.

It goes to figure that the only broadcast officially approved by the Writers Guild is one that is honoring the best of yet another union, The Screen Actors Guild. The Writers Guild put their foot down earlier, against allowing any of the SAG members from appearing onscreen in a telecast, even if it was to present or accept an award, leading to very lackluster People’s Choice and Golden Globe Awards. Despite tapping Jon Stewart to appear as host for the Academy Awards, no one is quite sure what kind of a telecast it will be. The SAG Awards usually don’t garner a lot of interest, but expect them to this year, since they seem to be the only show in town.

Up for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture are 3:10 to Yuma, American Gangster, Hairspray, Into the Wild, and No Country For Old Men. The only film I’ve seen of these, Hairspray, I do think they have a good ensemble. Any group that can get John Travolta to convincingly play a heavy older woman … but it could easily go to No Country For Old Men or American Gangster. Continued

Popularity: 30% [?]

The big question on everyone’s mind this morning, after the announcement of this year’s Oscar nominees, is will there be a show or not? Will there be a show similar to the People’s Choice Awards with a a host and some entertaining interviews and taped bits of the winners receiving their awards? Or will there be a very shortened telecast with a few people just rifling out the winners’ names like the Golden Globes? Or will the Writers Guild have a change of heart and realize that the Oscars are so big, as we head into the 80th anniversary of the Academy Awards, and just allow some sort of deal to be worked out? Do we need David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants on the case?

We do know that the host of whatever show goes on the air will be Jon Stewart, the host from two years ago. Why Ellen DeGeneres isn’t the host again, we’re not quite sure. It could be any number of things at this point. Maybe they feel Stewart would do better without writers, or maybe she decided against crossing the picket line for the telecast, even though she’s already crossing for her show. Who knows?

There are only going to be a few awards given out I really care about the outcome anyway. Despite seeing one or two movies a week, for some reason I haven’t seen most of the movies up for awards. This is because of a variety of reasons. For one, some of them didn’t interest me (I’m not really into historic epics …) and for another, many of them were originally out in a limited release and weren’t offered to me here out in the suburbs. Continued

Popularity: 25% [?]

This thing just doesn’t end.

While all the late night talk show hosts made their triumphant return to television some with writers, some without, all did it in slightly different fashion. David Letterman and Craig Ferguson are the only hosts that have the benefit of their writers, as Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, worked out an agreement with the Writers Guild. This means the other hosts, who are all in the Writers Guild as well, shouldn’t be crossing the picket line to do their own writing.

Yet, Jay Leno is defiantly writing his own jokes and preparing a monologue. The Writers Guild asked him, probably not so nicely, after Wednesday night to please not do that again, as he was breaking his agreement with the Guild. By Thursday night, he was still telling jokes, though, in a prepared monologue. He’d said the night before that for him it was just like old times, writing and preparing his own material.

I’m just not altogether sure how to feel about this matter. I mean, I understand the plight of my fellow writers. I really, really do. It is quite unfair for them to continually get the short end of the stick when it comes to proceeds, as you can’t do anything without the writers and that’s what they’re trying to prove on strike. It’s like they’re saying if you think the writers are so inconsequential, try doing your show completely without, and you’ll find out how much you need us. And in that case, Leno definitely isn’t doing without, as he’s still performing with the benefit of written jokes, via a monologue. Continued

Popularity: 27% [?]

Finally, after months of waiting, the late night talk show fests finally returned to the air. Just as all of them have handled their time off differently, they all handled their return differently, although none of them ignored the obvious reason for their absence.

David Letterman and Craig Ferguson were the only talk show hosts to return with writers, and this was on behalf of Letterman’s Worldwide Pants Production working out an agreement with the Writers Guild for their return. In true Dave fashion, he presented a Top Ten list of the writers’ top ten demands presented by the writers of a variety of different television shows. The list included items such as a complimentary tote bag along with an insulting offer, no disciplinary action against writers caught in an inappropriate relationship with a copier, and producers must immediately remove their heads from their asses. Ferguson resented the bloggers that are saying he and Letterman will now get all the A list celebrities due to not crossing the picket line, and he defended the stance, saying his show will continue to be crap.

While Letterman had a taped intro from Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jay Leno had Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee on as a guest, and not just chatting, but jamming with the band on his bass guitar. The Writers Guild is checking to see if Leno went against his own agreement as part of the Writers Guild by writing his own jokes for the show. He stated it was just like old times for him, as that’s how he started out years ago.

And just like Letterman, Conan O’Brien also showed up completely bearded. I’m not quite sure why the two equated the writers strike with an inability to shave. OBrien then showed how he spent his off time, performing Beastie Boys songs in the voice of Edith Bunker. He always does well at being an original, but he also showed he could jam pretty well on the guitar on his own.

In fact, that’s what all the late late night show hosts showed. They could do it on their own, one way or another, and most likely in the same vein that got them to the dance in the first place. Jay performs his standup, Dave does his top 10, Ferguson uses his self-deprecating humor, and Conan continue to have one-of-a-kind humor with a huge set-up that no one else could do. It makes you wonder why they haven’t been doing this all along.

Popularity: 40% [?]

So just what kind of effect has the Writers Guild strike had on the television ratings? Absolutely nothing.

After a couple of months of the writers being on strike, with all of the pre-written and filmed shows already aired, it seems the audience isn’t minding too terribly much. Of course, the holiday season usually has a few weeks of repeats anyway, but this is after several other weeks of repeats.

Yet, after all this worry, it seems we’d rather watch repeats of our favorite shows than go exploring and finding something new and different to watch. The number one rated show was a Sunday night football game, but frankly it was the Redskins at Vikings, so it would have scored up there in audience numbers anyway. And the number two show? CSI: Miami. A scripted show. The number three show was 60 Minutes, pretty much where it normally is.

In fact, twelve of the top twenty were scripted shows, shows that are always in the top twenty. The top rated reality show was The Biggest Loser finale, and frankly for a reality show finale, it was probably right on target ranking up there in sixth place. The Amazing Race ranked in fifteenth place, probably where it would normally be, especially since it was against the number one ranked Sunday Night Football. A new reality show made its appearance that week, Clash of the Choirs, on each of the nights from Monday through Thursday, but only ranked in the top twenty on the last two nights. Only one holiday show, a showing of the movie The Santa Clause 2, ranked.

After all this, what are we left with? We’re left with results that aren’t much different than they would have been a few months ago. For comparison, I checked this against the Nielsen ratings from October 15 through 21. It makes for a hard comparison as The Amazing Race hadn’t started back up yet, and Survivor and Dancing With the Stars were still on, as were the baseball playoffs. Yet, the CSI shows were still figuring prominently as were Two and a Half Men. There were eleven scripted shows instead of the current twelve in the top twenty.

As much as I support the Writers Guild efforts and everything they are standing for here by sticking to their guns and staying out on strike, it doesn’t seem like they’re making much of a difference in our viewing habits. There maybe be a few premature deaths to shows, but the solid shows that were figuring in the ratings before, still are. It seems the area of programming that is most hit is in the late night talk shows where those guys seem to change their minds weekly on how they’ll handle it. In the meantime, I don’t see the strike hurting the networks at all.

If you’d like to see exactly how the Top 20 ranked, see the full list over in our forums, Latest Nielsen Ratings for Week Ending on 12/23/07.

Popularity: 36% [?]