And Now, Back to the Daytime Apocalypse
So, while we were gripped by the Rashad Khan story, it appears that the Writers Guild of america voted to authorize a strike. The current WGA contract runs through Oct 31'st. Any time after that the writers can go on strike, although sources say the guild would probably wait until late Dec./early Jan, as that's when they could hurt the TV industry the most.
I know this has nothing to do with soaps, but I've got to use this quote from the New York Times story about the strike: “Any time you rush movies, you disrupt the rhythm, and I can promise you the result isn’t as good,” said John Davis, a producer of “Norbit".
Well, heavens, yes! Let's move Heaven and earth to make sure we keep getting fine, top-quality films like Norbit!
But you want to know about the soaps, right? From the NYT:
Soap operas like “The Young and the Restless,” viewed by some six million people a day, typically have a monthlong backlog of episodes. Because of their serial nature, soap operas do not perform well in repeats. Networks say they would try to maintain ratings during the day in the event of a strike by substituting more news and sports programming.
WOW! They're not talking about scabs. They're not even talking about repeats. They're talking about replacing the shows outright with news and sports. Geez!
Interestingly, several articles have mentioned the possibility of networks importing british shows into prime time if necessary. NBC has even confirmed that they're loking at running the British version of The Office, if need be. Would they do that to daytime too? Could you tune in one day looking for GH, and find Hollyoaks and Coronation Street?
The big issue is over residuals for DVD's, and internet downloads. Writers want a piece of that growing pie. But, according to a report on NPR I was listening to this morning, "the suits", as WoSTBrian would call them, feel that they aren't making enough money off these new revenue streams to hand out residuals, and what money they are making is going to off-set increasing production costs. The report also pointed out that unlike the 80's, where studios and networks were independent of each other and dependent on their programs to make money, today's media consolidation means that "the suits" can absorb losses easier. If ABC, for example, belonged to itself, or was even the most important part of its owner's portfolio, there would be an big incentive to get this resolved quickly. But, as part of the Disney conglomerate?
The sad thing is that soaps don't even have much to do with the issues at play here. Soaps are just barely involved in the online streaming game, and are not on DVD. So, daytime could be torpedoed by something that basically has nothing to do with it.
At the risk of being called Mr. gloom and doom (nothing new), I'll just say it--I think it's going to happen. 2007 has been friggin nuts for daytime, and a year-end strike would be the perfect capper. It just looks like the forces are conspiring to take out soaps once and for all. Maybe I should go to an island somewhere.
Related: New York Times Article on Soaps and Previous Writers' Strikes
Well, Snark... It seems to me that if we are talking a prolonged strike
(anything longer than, say, 4 days) daytime could be doomed. Scratch that.
Let me rephrase: "Daytime WILL be doomed". Friends, the much discussed
"final nail" is soon to be hammered in. Unless "the suits" respond
appropriately (and if they have ANY desire at all to save the genre), my
projected collapse of daytime by, what, 2011 or 2012, will be advance more
quickly than I thought and soaps will go away when their individual
contracts run out. No joke. No ratings, no sponsors. No sponsors, no
production. No production, more talk and/or paid programming.
I don't think the strike will happen. There is too much to lose on both
sides, and if there is a work stoppage I expect it will short.
"Maybe I should go to an island somewhere."
Well, if you do, tell John Black I said hello...and hurry!
I think we should take a moment of mourning for our soaps...
Don't worry, I picked up some writing skills on OLTL in-between the Pam
Long and Megan McTavish stints, so I can keep GH running like clockwork if
Guza, Conforti, Val Jean and the crew end up walking AND I have a line-up
of non-union actors for temporary recasts if the rumor about SAG following
WGA's lead comes true. I win!
Daytime...primetime...the American family--Wedding Destroyer's just killing
off everything!
I'm confused Snarkie. Will the strike start after the October 31st
deadline, or will the union wait until late December/early January? Marlena
remembers the 1988 strike well, and how angry some headwriters were at the
way scabs screwed up their storylines. Some of these scab stories took
forever to unravel and correct. I don't think daytime has the luxury of
time or ratings anymore to undo any scab-induced damage. That is, if there
is any soap programming is on at all during the strike. It all seems
like walk the plank time to me.
Marlena, the union is authorized to call a strike any time they want after
Oct 31'st, but beyond that, no one knows when/if they'll do it. All the
scuttlebutt seems to indicate they'll do it in Late Dec./early Jan, but
I've heard others say they might wait until June. That's when the Actors'
union contract comes up, and they have the same issues that the writers'
union has. The two may combine for a super-strike.
Yes, I was on the warpath earlier tonight :)
At this point does a strike really matter, I mean could the scabs be any
worse than the writers we have now? The daytime soaps need to die, I mean
if you had a relative who was terminally ill wouldn't you want them to be
out of their misery and in a better place? Its the same thing with the
soaps, lets put them to rest. And even though the daytime soap is dead.
However more shows in primetime have taken on a serialized format like 24,
Ugly Betty, Desperate Houswives, and look at Grey's Anatomy its more
General Hospital than General Hospital, we really don't AMC, OLTL Days and
the others anyomre, we can get our soap fix else where.
Oh Snark...you had me at turning on the TV to see Y&R and instead seeing
Hollyoaks! :)
Lord... the perfect ooporotunity! All CBS needs ot do is put on repeats of
Y&R from 20-30 years ago, and I would almost bet the reating would remain
steady, or maybe even climb! This has hapened with Soul Train, theyv'e
scrapped the idea of making another season of Soul train, because the
syndicated repeats from the 70's have been garnering higher ratings!
Snark, I've been tuned in to your "Snark Weighs In" blog ever since
WoSTBrian gave up the gig of those "Snarkcasts." I miss them, but
understand Brian needed to let it go. I'm just glad you're still blogging
-- and Brian occasionally responds. Thank you, both.