Although many already have

Djariy, I went to Deadline and read a post that laid out the terms of the agreement, it seems like a win for the present moment.

I am not a writer, but I was aware that the writers were asking for some sort of minimum staffing throughout a shows duration in the Writers Room, and a lot of folks felt that this was not a hill to die on and this "ask" was something writers should understand might not be part of any final agreement depending on the overall deal that was worked out.

Well, the writers who insisted that this needed to be part of any agreement that was acceptable were right. There were a lot of comments with writers saying that the loophole is that if a season is less than 7 episodes studios are not obligated to have a minimum number of writers on board, but there were plenty of other comments that acknowledge that most shows are more than 6 episodes, so this loophole will not be a constant means of studios ducking out on the terms of the agreement.

Do I think the loophole could be abused, yes, but I admit to being a bit naïve when I say I think that this really should be counted as a win because most studios want to spend money on a show that has the very real potential to run for much longer than 6 episodes, and I see why many writers are happy with the overall deal that was worked out.

Folks said that some of the terms were laid out back at the beginning of August and they did not get more than what they would have if the contract that was worked out this week had been a contract that was agreed to in August, so why the delay in ending the strike, but I feel that the reality is that that Op Ed piece at Deadline saying the only way the strike would end is if the the Studio heads met for face to face negations is correct. By getting the head honchos in a room and being face to face to confirm that the agreed upon terms would indeed be honored by the studios, that is what will give the writers confidence that they are about to ratify an agreement that will be honored.

I think the Actors strike will also be ending soon, since the Writers have shown the actors there is a path to an agreement that really could work to both the actors and studios benefit.

ETA: Shows what I know, I frequent a blog that has at least 2 regulars who are actually pretty high up the food chain when it comes to getting a show put together and filmed, and they say that a lot of writers are pissed that they went on strike for this deal, and it really could have been resolved at the beginning of August if more effort had gone into getting a deal done at the time. They are just glad the strike is finally over, but know folks who have lost their homes during this strike (Gizmo was not wrong, this really put the screws to a lot of working class folks, even if he just wanted the strike to end so he could get back to watching his fave shows, it makes me wince to hear about how this impacted some folks since it was a brutally long strike).

The thing is, I think that the Studios deliberately wanted the strike to last longer even if what would have been acceptable terms in August is pretty darn close to exactly what the terms they just agreed to are in this latest contract as there has been lots of talk that they wanted to "break" the writers and actors. I guess the Studios felt that this had gone on long enough, and the writers were not the only ones who were starting to be broken by this strike the longer it dragged on. Everyone was starting to share the pain and we end up where we are today. I also suspect that I just told folks that water is wet when I said that studios wanted to keep the strike going.

The late night talk shows return next week Mon Oct 2 and SNL might return on Oct 7 or 14


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/late-ni...hollywood-wga/

https://deadline.com/2023/09/saturda...th-1235555570/

How is SNL returning since I assume almost all of the cast are SAG members?

Yeah the article Jeff posted said that SNL could return, but that probably none of the cast is going to want to perform since the SAG-AFTRA strike is still on. In other words, article is speculative rubbish.

• Streaming Data Transparency: The Companies agree to provide the Guild, subject to a confidentiality agreement, the total number of hours streamed, both domestically and internationally, of self-produced high budget streaming programs (e.g., a Netflix original series). The Guild may share information with the membership in aggregated form.

This is interesting. I know it's subject to an NDA but still it will result in more people knowing the streaming numbers. Something that's been a really closely held secret by the studios. I wonder how much will leak out. I'm extremely curious what the numbers are for streaming shows.

SNL is covered under the Network Code contract, which is not on strike. The Network Code covers "soap operas, variety shows, talk shows, reality shows and game shows"
https://www.sagaftra.org/files/sa_do...ke_NetCode.pdf

So SNL can come back, they just can't have actors on who are promoting studio work. They could have actors not promoting studio work (though that might still invite backlash), otherwise they can lean into politicians, musicians, athletes, etc. If the SAG talks go well, they may only have to fill a couple weeks with that.

So it will be a while before Alec Baldwin hosts to promote Rust...

God help us if they start having politicians hosting on a weekly basis.

Maybe asking too much if they add the 3 or 2 missing May 2023 episodes from 2022=2023 to the new season?

Funny how this strike is now over and hopefully the actor's will be over in the next week or so, but it's made virtually no impact in this forum. Most here are still like many months/years behind in their TV viewing. Very few shows in this forum are talked about actively.

Unlike 2007-08 when streaming didn't exist and people here were dying for new shows and suffered through imports and reality TV. I can't really remember off the top of my head what this forum was even talking about back then.

I did a quick search in 2008... LOST threads by far had the most activity.

These shows also had very active threads:
Battlestar Galactica, The Office, Top Chef, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, House, How I Met Your Mother, Bones, Smallville, Scrubs, American Idol

Honestly I think that's part of the problem. I think that (like unfortunately so many things in our modern day society) our way of life and expectation is unsustainable. While yes I am on the side of the writers and actors for being paid fairly. I also think there isn't as much money in today's modern day landscape of media, and especially movies and TV, as there was 30..20...even 5 years ago. All the studios are struggling with how to approach the next few years in terms of content. It's not the panacea they thought it was, or at the very least they know they can't just write a blank check and greenlight every single project that get's proposed. There is just a glut of content out there being produced for diminishing returns. More hands, less pie. And that's not taking in to consideration other competition for leisurely activities like video games, youtube, hobbies, outdoor activities that all seem to be taking up more of people's time.

I don't know about y'all but I didn't mind the strike at all (in terms of content). I still have so many shows and movies and video games to catch up on.

Yup, the expectations of studios and networks for the general public to consume new movies and shows right away and talk about in addition to other forms of entertainment and living your life is not realistic now in 2023.

That’s why we’ve had so many 1 or 2 season series that have failed in the eyes of these studios and networks. There is just not enough time and eyes to watch everything that “looks good”. There’s probably hundreds of other shows that just came and went that many will say they never heard of because they have like 10 other unwatched programs in their backlogs. Networks and streamers producing 500+ shows per calendar year and expecting everyone to watch them is unrealistic and also not sustainable financially. That's why we've run into these labor issues. As you said, there isn't enough money to go around. People aren't subscribing to every service or paying $20+ for every PVOD movie.

But the expectation of the general public seems to be "if you don't constantly give me new stuff, your service isn't worth it" so I'm not sure how much is the studios pushing and how much is consumer expectation, even if the consumer cannot consume even a fraction of what they are asking for. Disney Plus came in with just a gigantic back catalog and all you would hear is "where's the new stuff."

I fear the "answer" is what we are already seeing, reducing the backlog stuff or at least rotating it so there is some pent up demand for it when it cycles back on, because we don't appreciate what we have (and they have to pay for it anyway).

I object to this statement. Poster is clearly delusional.

It's just because we don't have as many one-at-a-time releases

For example, I watched the first episode of Gen V last night but didn't have the chance to watch the other two that were released. I'll get it them eventually, but I don't want to go into the Gen V thread because people would be talking about the other two episodes. And by the time I get to them, the thread will have moved on. Once I finish the series, I might pop in there to put a "here's what I thought of the series" post but other than that, I won't be able to participate in the thread.

But if it was something like LOST or The Office, we could spend the week discussing and speculating what we all just watched and no one had ever seen anything further ahead.

And while that was fun, the tradeoff of having shows available on my schedule is something I would never want to give up.

Yeah, there's something to be said for the fun of crafting theories and such with other people on the same playing field without feeling like an idiot because others have watched five episodes ahead and know what actually happened. I feel you, I watched episode one of Gen V, posted my thoughts and then got right out because I didn't have time to watch all three.

But it's still the newness that gets buzz. When I first had kids, my initial thought was why don't they just recycle this preschool content, why do they keep making new stuff when kids are perfectly content watching reruns and none of these shows really move the needle all that much (this was obviously pre-Bluey). Like I'm watching Yo Gabba Gabba with my kids and I'm thinking why not just continue this show for longer? But I guess parents want their kids to watch new stuff, and marketing wants the kids to buy new toys, etc. etc. Just something being new draws the ratings.

That's the spoiled and delusional thinking this new "On demand" culture has developed.
" I need 100 new movies and 200 new TV shows dropping every month otherwise XXXX service is not worth my $20 per month!!! And I'll never have time to watch them, but I just want them there for perpetuity! "

I'm glad that the studios are giving writers and creators work, but we're at a point where no one can realistically watch even 10% of what comes out in a calendar year. And I'm sure cutbacks are going to happen at some point.

If Gen V came out 10-15 years ago, this forum would be so lit and it would have hundreds of posts after week 1. But nope. It's just...."I'll get to it at some point"

(I know we're all older now and for most of us, we have busy lives with family and kids and work, so it's incredibly hard to keep up with pop culture)

I just checked TV Time and ep 1 has 466 comments!

Well it used to be that you either watch it when it comes out or you are at the mercy of reruns mid season. Now you don't watch it right away, you have years if not "forever" to catch up, so what's a few days? Again, it's overall a better quality of service but unlike something like sports or reality TV unless you have watercooler (or forum) talk you want to get into, there's no real impetus to watch right away.

That said I did just watch the third episode of Gen V and I'm notorious for not watching stuff right away, so that show is doing something right...

Box office revenue was pretty steadily growing until 2020. There was a dip in 2019, but it could've recovered and increased.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...ue-since-1980/

It's still way down, but I think that's because the pandemic knocked a lot of people out of the habit of going to theaters, and realizing they're not missing much. It didn't help that studios drastically reduced the timespan before titles hit streaming, and haven't adjusted back to longer terms.

Likewise, this chart shows that overall TV/video revenue has been increasing since 2017, although OTT (over the top) services like streaming are gaining revenue, while traditional TV revenue is dropping. It's overall a net gain.
https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo...ldwide#revenue

So the money is there, but again, streamers have been overpaying for content for a while. I read a recent report that Disney has lost $11 billion in streaming since launching Disney+ . Now, some of that includes Hulu, but likely a huge chunk is putting nearly its entire catalog on the service and paying for feature-film prices for TV shows. So it's not that the money isn't there, but all the studios launching their own streaming services and producing way too much content to try and make their service the one people keep year-round has overextended the costs over what's actually available.

I guess Drew burned her bridge with her writers in prematurely announcing her show coming back without them.

https://deadline.com/2023/10/writers...73e828aa12daf1

Deal officially ratified. 8,435 yes, 90 No

I look forward to doing this all over again in 2026

Were you actively walking the picket line?

I didn't mean literally me. I meant seeing more labor issues in 3 years.