[KneeCo]

Seems kind of odd not to have a thread given that it's kind of a big thing and there's a bunch of TV fans around here.

* The Strike has been on since Nov 5th.

* It doesn't seem like an end is in sight. The networks are mostly re-arranging their schedule well into the new year in anticipation of a prolonged strike.

* Talk shows like the Daily Show or the network ones have gone into re-runs this week. Letterman, Conan, Stewart and Leno have all sided with the writers. Presumably, if they ever cross/the strike goes long they would return with more interview weighted episodes (Ellen returned the day after the strike and "out of respect" for her writers, didn't do a monologue).

* Arnold Schwarzenegger has made it a priority to resolve the strike (and while I do think almost everything about the guy is a joke, he has a pretty good track record in these kind of things).

* Speaking of the Daily Show, news came out this week that John Stewart is paying the writers of the DS as well as the Colbert Report (he's an exec prod of both) out of pocket for at least the first two weeks of the strike.

* Fox has shelved "24" until they are sure the show can run a repeat free season, has its been doing for a few seasons now.

* ABC's LOST has 8 of 16 episodes prepared for next season. Supposedly, it happens that the 8th ep ends in a cliffhanger, and ABC is going to run the 8 eps they have as planned.

* Sitcoms are fastest hit by the strike, because they write episodes very last minute and because the way a lot of them work requires writers on set.

* "The Office" is probably hardest hit because a lot of their cast are writers, who have penned eps of the series, including Steve Carrell and BJ Novak. They are refusing to work during the strike. "The Office" only has one episode left in the can.

* The issue at hand is how much/little writers get paid for DVD sales and online broadcasts; collectively called "new technology". More and more, the money made from TV shows is in season set DVD packages, and the broadcasting of episodes online, either through a site like itunes at a cost or through the networks website attached to ads.

* Writers want to get more of this new pie, while networks will hear nothing of it. The standard network line is something to the effect of "the profitability and sustainability of these new technologies is unquantifiable at this early stage so we can't restructure the pay scale at this time";

*however some people have been more harsh, from Entertainment Weekly:
"Currently, for every dollar spent on a DVD, writers receive about one-third of a penny. They would like, instead, to receive about two-thirds of a penny. The AMPTP's first response to this was to waste weeks by advocating a complete abolition of the residual system. Why, they argued, should writers get paid anything for their work after it's released? Studio chiefs who are smart enough to know better even hauled out a tired old maxim attributed to the late MCA titan Lew Wasserman — ''My plumber doesn't charge me every time I flush the toilet'" (this argument of proximity contradicts the standard understanding of compensation for written work used for fields like film, music, books, ...).

* Truthfully, it's hard to look at the facts and not side with the writers, however I do believe they've done a horrible job of getting the story out there. TV news coverage especially, while devoting a lot of time, has been hugely polarized to covering the strike and anecdotes about different TV celebs attached to, rather than the issue. If the writers can educate the public and more the fight to the PR arena, I think their chances of being satisfied go up huge.

* While the New Yorker article a few weeks back indicated "The Wire" has wrapped shooting for its final season, theres no official word I've found about it coming back or not.

*Some other OOT favs and how many eps they have left prepared:
- 30 Rock: 5
- Friday Night Lights: 9
- Heroes: 5
- The Office: 1 (half-hour)
- Prison Break: 6
- Pushing Daisies: 4
- Scrubs: 9